Greatest Pretend
by Albion19
Summary: Centuries of waiting is over as the heart of the truest believer is finally in Pan's clutches. Wendy struggles between doing what she knows is right and the need to protect those she loves at any cost. As Peter faces the beginning of the end he must choose between the island he has to save and the true love that fate ordained. Last in the A Very Sweet Subject trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

"_Weiter! Weiter! Starr nicht so!_"

John glanced at his brother as he slept in the passenger seat before returning his eyes to the road. That Michael spoke German was not strange, all of the Darlings could speak French, German and a spattering of Spanish, but the sound of it made John's knuckles go white on the steering wheel. Michael, like Peter, was often at the mercy of terrible nightmares, terrible _memories_ and though his shorter brother could provide an affable, calm face he was haunted by his past.

"Michael, wake up," he urged as they drove towards the road sign proclaiming the next town. "We're here," he put his foot to the pedal and floored the exhaust and as Michael opened his eyes they sped past the _Welcome to Storybrooke_ sign. Once over the town line John exhaled a pent up breath and looked at Michael, who was pale but smiling.

"We're here," he sat up, flexing his stiff neck and looked at the death grip John had around the steering wheel. "Easy Johnny, don't hurt my car."

"Sorry _Mickey_," John sneered and his brother smirked. Relaxing his tense muscles John eyed the houses that started to appear at the edges of the woods until they crested a hill and all of Storybrooke was laid out before them. Michael consulted a map, which was dotted with circles detailing the whereabouts of the inhabitants. The ones circled in red were people to be careful of but one spot on the map was a blot of deep red, like blood.

"The Blue Fairy," Michael sighed, tapping the area on the map that depicted the nun's convent. Pan had got word to the Home Office, which was growing smaller by the day, and the brothers had left for America. They were to observe and wait for further orders but they were to watch the Mother Superior most closely.

"From all reports she's been as quiet as a church mouse, even after the curse was broken. It's odd," John mused, starting the car again and driving into the town. They would rent some rooms out at the motel, keep their heads down and to any curious questions they would just say they were passing through. Though both were brave and resolute they looked upon the town with unease, a place that they had been watching for the last twenty eight years but always from the outskirts, never able to enter until now.

"These people are like us," Michael said suddenly as they drove slowly down the empty main road. John cocked an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"Yes, I feel _especially_ connected to Old Mother Hubbard and the Seven dwarves," John deadpanned and Michael rolled his eyes.

"In this world we are nothing but stories, same as everyone else here," he flicked his fingers against the keychain teddy bear swinging from the rear-view mirror, a trinket Michael had been unable to resist buying on a trip to Disney Land. Pan had laughed himself breathless when he was told.

As a red headed man crossed the street with his dog John shook his head, mouth thinning. "You were muttering in your sleep again."

"Oh and what did I say this time?" his voice was level, eyes fixed on the crossing man and dog.

"_Keep going _and _don't stare_. German again."

Michael nodded and drove the car forward, saying nothing and John thought he was not going to respond but as they turned a corner he spoke up.

"The Red Cross stopped delivering to our camp, the soviet army was coming ever closer so we were told to get up one winter morning and start walking. It's 400 miles between Auschwitz and Moosburg."

"A death march…" John uttered softly, staring at his now older brother softly. Michael's time in a labour camp as a prisoner of war during the 40's was not something they talked about often but it was there, a constant weight behind them, like a shadow. John grew stern. "We might be stories in this world but we are _not_ like these people Michael."

"If only we were. I think Wendy would — what the devil?!" he shouted suddenly as a woman moved purposefully into the road and stopped before the approaching car. The tires screeched against the asphalt as John broke sharply and the car screeched to a halt a foot away from the woman.

"Are you insane!?" John yelled, throwing the door open and moving around the front of the car. The young woman turned to face him and he stopped dead in his tracks. Long dark hair was plated and gathered into a bun and she was dressed in an over large jumper to deflect the cold of Maine but she was immediately recognisable.

"Hello John. Do you need your glasses?" Tiger Lily took a pair of old spectacles that were hanging from a chain around her neck and offered it to him, looking concerned. John could only gawp at her as Michael came to his side, amused at John's dazzled amazement and poked him forward. As he did he became aware that people were standing on the sidewalk and he turned.

"…Aunties?"

Edith and Agnes, now in jeans and t-shirts draped with sequined shawls, threw out their arms to the Darling brothers, tears in their eyes and Michael went to them, feeling as dazed as John looked. The taller brother they had to drag away from Tiger Lily and he put up a mild fight as they pecked him with kisses.

"We haven't seen you for such a long time! You went away to war and never come back!" Edith cried, giving a reddening John another hug before he was able to untangle himself from them. It was then that Michael became aware that another person was standing behind the sisters and he straightened.

"This is Lucy, our niece," they said in unison and pulled the younger woman forward. Her red hair glinted in the sun and Michael inclined his head to her polity but froze when she lifted her hand. Sightless blue eyes gazed at him and Michael blinked.

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

Her fingertips brushed lightly over his features and then she did the same to John, who kept casting furtive glances at Tiger Lily. Finally Lucy nodded and stepped back.

"This is who I saw. If you had drove past us someone would have killed you," she pointed at John, "and would have imprisoned you," she inclined her head to Michael. The brothers, their feelings of happiness fading, looked at the young seer grimly.

"Who?" they asked together and all three seers shrugged.

"No idea. Best you stay with us, just to be safe," Agnes ushered them into the shop, which Michael saw with bemusement was called _A Stitch in Time,_ and they closed the door with a tinkle of a bell. Surrounded by the hush of the shop and the smell of soap powder the Darlings gazed on the women before them.

"What happens now?" John asked and Tiger Lily frowned, tilting her head.

"You don't know? What have you been doing for the last century?"

John and Michael looked at each other and saw the same guilt and shame reflected back.

"We thought it was to defeat Pan and get our sister back," Michael explained and John shook his head sadly.

"But we just messed everything up. Now we don't age and we do his bidding, that's why we're here."

The seers smiled in understanding before shaking their heads. "You're here because you're meant to be, doesn't matter who sent you. Peter might think he's got the future all set out in front of him like a map but that's tosh. You're not puppets and he does not pull your strings. What do you want?"

John and Michael gave each other a hard, long stare before nodding. The water that Pan supplied them with was keeping them forever young but it was also a sword hovering over their heads. He could withhold it, had subtly threatened to from time to time but they had continued to follow his orders for Wendy's sake and for a penance they believed they had to pay. Now, after half a century, that abasement seemed empty and false. While they deemed their servitude as a means of appeasement Pan only grew more power hungry and cruel, making a mockery of their sacrifice and their sister's involvement in Pan's life ever more insidious. The Darling family, once of Bloomsbury Square, London, was now a family bartering in the murder of a child.

Michael was the one to answer, exhaling in relief. "We want to save Henry Mills. We want to grow up."

"We want _all_ of the Darlings to grow up," John added, back straight and eyes fixed on the sisters. They smiled and patted the men's faces maternally.

"Then we better get started."

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_And here we go. Thank you for your patience and I hope you'll enjoy what is to come. I will be taking some plot elements from the show's Neverland arc but like the other two stories this is AU._

_Back to the island next...(update tomorrow hopefully)_


	2. Chapter 2

Before the island, before the mermaids and Lost Boys, before it knew the touch of Peter the Fountain of Youth poured into the seas and rose as vapour into clouds before raining down again. The Fire Bird knew no cage and just as waters from the fountain were transformed and reborn in a perpetual cycle so was the bird. None were meant to be discovered or used, immortality was only found in dreams of men but one little boy changed that. The creation of Neverland was the beginning of the end.

As the first adult blood was spilled and the island soaked it up Wendy Darling collected what water was left from the dying fountain and crept through the jungle. To any that saw her from the corner of their eye she was a ghost that was quickly swallowed by deep shades. Peter had taught her everything he knew and she could slip away undetected as easily as he could.

Tamera and Greg lay sprawled out in the disturbed earth, signs of a previous scuffle. An arrow shaft jutted out from the woman's back and Wendy sneered. What sort of coward killed someone with their back turned? She could no longer claim to have any sense of innocence left but such a senseless and disrespectful death was repellent.

"Left out to rot like animals," she murmured and shook her head. "Worse even…" she looked down at the flask of water in her hand and lowered it. It was useless now, nothing could bring back the dead. Peter and Felix had often referred to the two dead adults at her feet as _the idiots_, who had no real clue as to who they were working for. Peter had her brothers trick them and though she knew Michael and John were off put lying to them soon even they looked on the two dupes with a disdainful scorn. Wendy stared down at them with a hot sizzling pity.

"You're not going to cry, are you?" Peter's voice drifted from behind her and she stiffened but did not turn.

"Who's crying? No one will mourn these poor souls," she said as Peter came to stand before her, the bodies between them. He was no longer dressed as a Lost Boy but in his usual attire. He was smiling very softly. Henry was his and the years of waiting was over.

"Why pity those you don't even know?"

"Why? How can I even explain it to you? Why even bother and waste my breath? Even with a heart you wouldn't get it," she replied softly and he rolled his eyes as she pointed down. "No matter what you thought of them, no matter what they did, they didn't deserve to die like this. Are you going to kill the others too?"

Peter's eyebrows rose into his hair and he scoffed as if she were mad. "Kill them? Where's the _fun_ in that? They've just got here! I've been waiting _centuries_ for these people Wendy. Oh no I'm going to have fun with them before the end," he grinned in excitement but it did not quite reach his eyes.

"Peter you hardly have any magic left, whatever you think you can do you can't. Almost all of those adults have magic," she warned him gently and stepped away from the gruesome sight at her feet and went to him. He cocked an eyebrow, looking unconcerned.

"I'm well aware of my limitations. Like I said I've known _who_ has been coming for centuries. You think I wouldn't have put some preventative measures in place? And you know better than anyone that I don't need magic to succeed," he tapped his temple and Wendy grew cold. He would play with their minds, target their love as surely as he had fed into the anger and loneliness of Greg and Tamera. He would play them like strings.

"I shouldn't have taken your heart," she whispered and he cocked his head and touched her cheek.

"It was an ingenuous plan Wendy. As long as it beats they can do whatever they want with my body and I'll still live. And once the heart of the truest believer is here," he tapped his chest, "I'll have no need of that rotting old thing."

"It was getting better," she muttered, feeling small. It was like talking to a wall. He only smirked and scoffed at her silly human feelings. But no matter what she felt having ownership of his heart was the only way to make her plan a success. She just had to be strong and weather it out. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hard hug before he pushed her back gently.

"This isn't part of the game. You're meant to stay out of sight until I have need of you. I don't want them to catch a single glimpse of you."

Though his heart was now hers he spoke with a possessiveness that was familiar. She wondered what feeling, if any, was now pulsing through him, what he was thinking. Did he care for her? Love? Was that possible in someone who felt all but nothing? Or maybe the more pertinent question was did she love this heartless boy before her? Could she?

He pressed one light kiss to her mouth before nodding for her to leave. Wendy cast a backwards glance and watched Peter wave his hand over the bodies and they disappeared as if they had never been.

* * *

The water reeds clustered around the small pier shivered in the breeze as Wendy paddled in a boat across the lake that cut off her cave from the rest of the island. The entire inlet was choked with a briar of Dreamshade, an infestation that had grown worse as soon as the adults had stepped foot on the island. Peter was deathly serious about no one having access to her. Wendy was now immune to the poison but she still moved carefully as she walked along the jetty and hacked away the vines with her sword. Dreamshade had brought so much misery to her life that she hated the very sight of it.

"You know it'll just grow back even more," a voice quipped and Wendy looked up to see Tink standing at the entrance to the cave. It had been twenty eight years since Tink had come back but Wendy always caught herself looking for any tell-tell signs of change. She was not any older but when she let the glamour fade the degradation of magic was clear in the hollow of her cheeks and the dimming light of her eyes. Tink was dying but for the first time in centuries she was desperate to stay alive and not for revenge.

"Did you see them? The adults? I don't know why I keep calling them that, I'm three times as old as most of them," Wendy rambled and Tink smiled and sat on the ladder behind her. She sighed and did not speak for some time but when she did her words were chosen carefully.

"I confronted Regina…and I let her live. I've wanted her to pay for so long but now things are different. Revenge just seemed…petty. She just wants to protect her son…I've been so selfish," Tink smiled humourlessly, hand idle on her stomach, but to Wendy it appeared that the sullenness that hovered over her friend like a dark cloud had lifted. She could not imagine carrying such a blood thirsty want but she knew discarding it must be freeing, in a hollow way, as a stone lifted leaves a dent that can only be levelled with time.

"Have you seen _him_ yet?" she stressed and Tink's eyes flickered before the corner of her mouth curled.

"My captain," she crooned softly but her gaze grew distant. Again her hand went to her stomach and Wendy battled down an old envy that left her shamed. Tink's predicament was awful and her life depended on the survival of Neverland as surely as Peter's did. Would Hook be so eager to help his new friends if he knew what state he had left his old lover in?

"You won't tell him?" Wendy asked. It was something she had gingerly asked before and it was always met with the same answer.

"That bridge is burnt. We went our separate ways, we parted on good terms," she said but to Wendy it sounded too rehearsed and she knew that more had gone down between the captain and the fairy than Tink was willing to admit. The truth of the matter was she loved him and that love had not dimmed after centuries.

"But you love him…"

Tink's eyes snapped to her and she grew sombre. "Sometimes it's not enough, especially when your love is not that person's priority. Do you understand? Never settle for less."

Wendy smiled weakly and leaned on the Dreamshade infested wall beside Tink, plucking off thorns. "Whose side are you on now?"

"Side? I've never been on anyone's side but my own. You should consider doing the same."

"I was like that once, when I escaped. I was just looking out for myself but it's different when the ones you love are involved," she hovered her fingertip over an inky thorn and stared at Tinkerbell significantly. The ex-fairy realised that she was cradling her stomach and straightened, lowering her hands.

"Yes…I've got your back but we both know what my priority is now. I want to leave this island alive."

"I know and so do I. I'll do everything I can to help you," she pulled her friend in for a hug and eyed Felix standing on the other shore. She smiled and lifted a hand which he did not return. "Your secret admirer is here," Wendy joked and Tink groaned, pulling back. The knowledge that Felix, stoic but often cruel Felix, was quietly in love with the fairy came as a surprise to Wendy. Peter was not and found it hilarious.

"He's got more pixie dust for me," Tink said with a sigh. "He knew straight away you know, about my condition."

"How a silly lanky boy could have realised before me I'll never know!" Wendy joked, walking Tink to the boat. The fairy eyed her for a moment, weighting what to say before shrugging.

"You'd be surprised. He was married once you know."

"WHAT?" Wendy yelled and quickly clapped her hand over her mouth. Tink smirked at her utter surprise and looked at Felix, who could not hear them but was eyeing them suspiciously all the same.

"Yeah, he's full of surprises."

"I can't believe it. Peter never mentioned it!"

"He probably forgot, like he forgets everything he doesn't care to hear…" Tink sighed and stared at Wendy hard. "If you run into Killian you must promise me that you won't breathe a word."

"I promise," she said firmly and cocked her head as Tink sat down in the boat. "Half human, half fey…do you think it will be like Peter?"

"I bloody hope not," Tink swore and grew serious. "Look after yourself Wendy…and remember if all goes to hell and you see a chance to escape: take it."

"I'll try…"

* * *

Emma Swan was on the Jolly Roger. In Neverland. With Captain Hook and Rumplestiltskin. Sometimes she sat back and let the truth wash over her and while she knew it was real sometimes it was just too much to take in. Her life was like a child's dream, one with a weird imagination. Thinking of the peculiarities was preferable to the swelling panic and misery that rose up in her when she thought about her son or Neal. Henry was still in Pan's clutches, for what purpose she still had no clue and Neal…

"We barely made it out of there alive," Regina drawled at Rumple who said nothing but gave her a heavy lidded stare. He was on autopilot, as she was and only one thing was keeping them up: getting Henry back. But sometimes she could smell gunpowder, hear the crack of a gun in her ears, the slip of Neal's fingers as he fell through the portal and her last confession. She had told him she loved him and he was dead.

"Earth to Emma," Hook said gently and she blinked rapidly.

"Sorry. What do we do?" She had followed the map that smirking bastard had given her and it had taken her to Pan's camp but it had been a trick. He just wanted to show them how powerless they were and how this was his island. They were stumbling around in the dark and she couldn't see how they could find Henry in it.

"As you've no doubt realised now an upfront assault on Pan and his hoard is useless and trying again is ill advised. I don't think he wants to kill us, he could have done so already. He wants a _game_ and we're his pieces. Pan himself hardly ever raises arms, his choice of weapon is far more insidious. He goes for you here and here," Hook placed his fingers against his temple and chest. "He might look like a boy but he's _old_ and plays on your hopes and fears like a demon."

"So what? How can we defeat someone like that?" Emma groaned, throwing her hands up. It did not escape her that while she possessed magic she was out of her depth. But she had to get Henry back, by whatever means necessary, so any fears and worries had to be pushed down until she couldn't feel them. Her mother moved closer and Emma felt herself sinking against her before catching herself and straightening.

"By retaliating like for like," Rumple answered quietly, speaking for the first time since they ventured back to the ship. "He's taken someone we love and so we'll do the same in kind."

"Love?" Regain sneered.

Hook inhaled sharply and clenched his jaw, looking startled. He looked at Rumple and shook his head. "You're suggestion a trade? It's bad form."

"He has my grandson, there is no _form_. Whatever sentimental notions you have for the girl drop them," Rumple spat and Hook's face grew hard until his eyes glinted like flint. Emma, deeply confused, looked between the two men who had a shaky but so far intact truce.

"Who does Peter Pan love? Who do we take from him?"

Hook sighed and reluctantly answered her. "…Wendy Darling."

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_dundunduh! D:_

_So I said that this would be mainly from Wendy's POV but I needed a voice from the other camp and I thought Emma's would be best. __More to come in a few days! Thanks for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

She gathered her hair up, walking with her arms up to let the breeze blow against the back of her neck before lowering her hands and letting her hair tumble back again. It wasn't wise to relax or keep her guard down. They could be attacked or Pan could decide to play a game and she had to be ready. But it was too damn hot. She had lived in Florida, which sometimes felt closer to the sun than its neighbour Cuba but the humidity of the jungle was unrelenting.

"How the hell can you walk around like that?" she waved a hand at Hook's long black coat as it swished over the ground and he cocked an eyebrow, looking back at her over his shoulder.

"Quite dashingly actually, thanks for noting," he smirked and then stopped, pointing upwards. "There she is," he said and his voice was gentle. Emma looked up, hand over her eyes, and spotted in the canopy far above a small, modest treehouse.

"Tinkerbell."

Once the plan to take Wendy as a trade for Henry had been agreed, much to Hook's reluctance, they had realised that they could not just sneak into his camp and grab her. What they needed was someone who Pan trusted but also someone who they could count on to help them. Hook had provided the fairy's name as if it caused him a psychical pain and since he and Emma had left the ship he had been dragging his feet. He gave another sigh and rubbed at his mouth, his hand fingering the bottle of rum by his hip. Emma ignored him and gripped the first rung of the ladder.

"What should I expect?" An image of a jealous, tiny fairy pulling a girl's hair came vividly into Emma's mind, just as sometimes she battled with the impulse to call Hook a codfish. Tinkerbell could be no bigger than her hand and talk in another language for all she knows.

"Depends on her mood...when she's happy she's ecstatic, when she's angry…" he rubbed the back of his neck and smiled to himself in a nostalgic way and Emma frowned before climbing up. Whatever kind of magical creature was up there it was clear that she and Hook shared a history and judging from the captain's almost bashful hesitance she could almost guess what.

_Henry would laugh_, she contemplated with a soft smile before catching herself. It was at once painful yet comforting knowing that he was so close but maddening that she couldn't get to him. Pan, who she was rather perturbed to realise was not a little kid and seemed to emit a weird sexual frisson, had promised her the night before that her son was safe and unharmed. According to Hook the immortal always kept to his word but it was hard to trust a smug, skinny bastard who held her son hostage.

"Knock gently, she'll give you what for if she's sleeping," he advised as Emma reached the treehouse. Panting for breath and perspiring heavily she knocked against the bottom of the trap door but received no answer. Praying that she had not just climbed so far for nothing Emma cracked the door open an inch and peered through. She could see the bottom of a table and an empty hammock but no fairy. She looked back down at Hook.

"I can't see anyone."

"Go in, we'll wait for her."

Emma pushed the door back and climbed into the fairy's treehouse. As she straightened she immediately realised that she had been wrong. Standing on a balcony with her back to her was a blonde woman dressed in dark green clothes. The sun glinted off the messy bun of hair perched on top of her head and the sequins stitched into her clothes.

_She's got no wings and she's my size. _The thought drifted through her mind as Tinkerbell turned, hearing Hook close the trap door, and Emma inhaled sharply. For just a second the fairy seemed to _shimmer_ and the faint glow that seemed to surround the woman winked out and she stood small and oddly faint, as if the dim sun was shining through her like she was no more substantial than paper. Emma had lived in a place called the retirement state, where the old came to live out their remaining years and die and she had seen the same wasted faces there but never on someone who looked so young.

Shocked and not knowing how to proceed Emma jumped when Hook's sword cluttered to the floor as Tink hastily turned her back and gripped the railing. The captain approached her but then stopped at her back, clearly uncomfortable.

"Tink?" his voice was low, rough and the most vulnerable Emma had ever heard him. The only time she had heard anything close to it was when he talked about the death of Milah or his shame and regret about Baelfire. Apart from a few passing comments he had never spoken of the fairy. _But then I never asked…_

"What are you doing here?! You – you can't just waltz in you know!" her voice was strident but Emma could tell she was deeply embarrassed. Her shoulders hunched as he lifted a hand to touch her but hesitated. Emma suddenly felt intrusive and averted her eyes away before they flicked back, unable to stop herself.

"Are you well?" he asked delicately and Tink laughed, her shoulders slumping.

"You know the answer to that and you've known it for a long time," she answered with a sigh and then inhaled deeply before turning. Emma steeled herself but the person turning was not sick at all, in fact she looked the picture of health. Her skin was plump and rosy and her blue eyes gleamed. She was beautiful and at the sight of her Hook sighed.

"Glamour. How long have you been using that trick?"

"Long enough to fool you," she retorted smartly and Emma suppressed a smile. Tink's tongue was barbed and she seemed someone who did not suffer fools gladly. Not insulted in the least Hook grinned and as the two old friends gazed at each other Emma could feel the pull between them, made blatant by the resistance they were both fighting.

"I've missed you, my lady," he added quietly with feeling, inclining his head with an easy smile and for the first time the scornful look on Tink's face disappeared. The tension snapped and they moved as one into an embrace, the pirate lifting the smaller woman off her feet. He held her like she was a precious thing. Feeling more intrusive than ever Emma distracted herself by looking around the treehouse as they hugged. Kettles, pots and pans hung from hooks, too many to actually be of use but what drew her attention was a shelf on a wall. Clustered on it were a number of small bottles, all neatly labelled and she leaned down to read.

_Poppy seeds, squid ink, Dreamshade, fairy dust, pixie dust_. The last substance was everywhere she looked, a dull grey dust that glinted duly in the light. At her feet she could see an open sack full of the stuff. Emma picked up a tiny phial half filled with inert pixie dust and gave it a little shake, smiling. The dull, ash like dust immediately shifted into a vibrant, sparkling green and Emma's eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"Cool."

"What did you do?!" Tink's voice barked out from behind her and Emma dropped the phial in surprise and bumped into the sack of pixie dust, upsetting it. The once lifeless dust spilled out over the floor like thousands of finely cut emeralds, burning brightly. Emma winced, lifting her head up to apologise when she froze. Hook and Tink were staring at her in stupefied wonder that quickly turned into a barely suppressed excitement. Finally, unable to hold back, Hook whooped with delight and swept Emma into his arms, kissing her.

"You did it Swan!" he cried out, laughing in happiness. Emma, confused but pleased, pushed at him to put her down and he did so reluctantly. Tink blinked at the show of affection before she turned her attention to the green dust. She lifted her fingers to her mouth and her eyes grew glossy with emotion.

"It's alive…how did you do it?" she asked faintly as Hook bent down to scoop some up. Emma shook her head, deeply confused.

"Do what? I just shook it."

"No, pixie dust is inert in Neverland, only sometimes will it work but usually the magic drains away, like everything else here now," Tink explained, moving closer to her, head tilting. Emma felt a little awkward under the scrutiny, especially as this was touching on a subject that she was still coming to terms with.

"I, uh, I have magic."

"Innate?"

"I guess so."

Tink smiled, a flash of jealousy in her eyes. "Most people who practise magic need a source for it. Like here the magic is powered by belief. Fairies use dust and a wand as a conduit but some people have an inborn supply."

"Like Miss Swan here!" Hook said as he took a seat on the low table, beaming, and Emma couldn't remember if she had ever seen the pirate so happy. But it was more than happiness, it was pure relief. He was looking at the fairy with an unbridled hope. "You're saved Tink."

The fairy sunk down into the hammock, staring between the dust that Hook poured into her hand and at Emma in a guarded sort of wonder, as if she couldn't quite believe it. Emma, uncomfortable with the attention and what she had done, stared out of the window that showed a breath-taking view of the canopy top and her mind strayed to Henry, hoping that he was safe, both psychically and mentally. Her display of magic and the benefit that she had unwittingly wrought would have to take back seat.

"We actually came to see you for a reason," Emma began and Tink smirked.

"Oh, so it wasn't to say hello?" her eyes flicked to Hook who looked a little ashamed before he grew stony faced and straightened. Tink's eye narrowed. "Not only haven't you skinned your crocodile but you're sharing quarters too."

"Hardly," Hook replied dryly but he shifted uncomfortably. "The partnership is matter of convenience…but yes, my revenge is dead and buried. As the queen still breathes I take it you've had a similar change of heart?"

"Yes…though I can't say what the root of your forgiveness is."

Hook smirked and looked at Emma. "You're looking at her."

His attention on Emma he did not see the flash of hurt on the fairy's face but Emma did. Now fully aware that the history they shared was anything but platonic she felt a squirming embarrassment. She and Hook flirted, they bantered and teased each other and while she could confess reluctantly that she enjoyed it and found him too attractive for his own good that was as far as it went for her. She may have had a hand in his change of heart but only one thing truly swayed him to help her and her family.

"Neal. Neal is why he's here," Emma said softly and the smile of Hook's face dropped like a weight. Tink nodded sadly, tears actually welling up in her eyes.

"Regina told me what happened. I'm sorry for your loss. We both knew Bae when he was here. I wish I could have done more for him," Tink confessed and Hook nodded.

"None more than I. If Milah lived we would have raised him and even after she died I had that opportunity. I could have been a father to him, I should have protected him but I sacrificed him for my own ends…as I seem to forsake everything," he added, looking at Tink sadly. She smiled and shrugged.

"Who here is blameless of that?"

"I couldn't help him while he was alive but I will protect his son if I can," he finished passionately and Tink stared at him, her expression unreadable. She placed a hand against her stomach and then smirked.

"Careful Killian, you almost sound like a gentleman again."

"Well my lady you can take a boy out of Eton…" He joked and Emma was about to ask him about his school days, where he actually comes from but the only thing that was of importance was Henry. She leaned closer and stared at Tink intently.

"Will you help us get my son back?"

Tink narrowed her yes. "You know you can't beat Pan. You know that better than anyone," she directed towards Hook who nodded.

"Perhaps but we both know his pride has always been his downfall. Going after him directly doesn't work but there is a way to even our odds." He rose and peered out of the window, as if looking for eavesdroppers. "We can't take Henry so we have to find another way to save him. What we want is Wendy."

"Wendy?" Tink blinked, straightening up in the hammock.

"Listen, we need someone we can trust to bring Wendy to us. Someone who can walk freely into Pan's camp without suspicion. We need your help," Emma explained, staring at Tink desperately. The fairy narrowed her eyes.

"What makes you think you can trust me?"

Hook laughed tiredly and sat back down on the table. "Come on Tink, after everything we been through together! We've _always_ had each other's backs."

Tink stared at him, clearly in conflict before she visibly hardened and shook her head. "Those days are gone. The only back I look out for is my own. Why should I risk it?"

"You're sick," Emma replied flatly and Tink's eyes snapped to her, angry and startled. Emma pressed on. "You said magic is fading and I'm guessing that's what you need. I can give it to you," she said clearly, pointing down at the green pixie dust still speckling the floor. "If you bring Wendy to us I'll make as much of this stuff as you need. You have my word."

Tink bit her lip, gnawing at it and her fingers rubbed against her side. "If Peter finds out that I'm helping you he'll have my head."

"He won't kill you, he's too fond of you," Hook reasoned and Tink's mouth thinned and she leaned forward and spoke in a harsh whisper.

"Do you remember what happened to the people Peter thought were after Wendy?"

Hook grew pale and he swallowed. "It's that reaction we're counting on Tink. She's the only thing he seems to care about, apart from himself. She's literally the only card we've got. Please Tink? I promise that no harm will come to Wendy. She's another I should have protected more, done more for but maybe now I can do that. When we get Henry back you can leave this forsaken place, you _and_ Wendy. You're not bound to it anymore."

"I can _leave_…" she muttered, gaze unfocused as the implication sunk in. The corner of her mouth curled up in a soft smile and Emma knew that the fairy was now on their side, as far as it served her. Soon, if she was very lucky, Henry would be safe and back with his family.

* * *

She was to stay out of sight, to hide in the shadows and speak softly. She was to be the image of a frightened girl, still in her white night gown because the truth was too dangerous. She was Wendy Darling of Bloomsbury to the unaware, kept on the island under duress and threat of violence because the alternative, the truth, was a weak point in Peter's carefully constructed plan. If they knew he had a heart and who it belonged to they would crush it.

But she grew half sick of shadows and white Edwardian dresses long ago. She paced the confines of her old cave bedroom until the restlessness became too much and she left. She ventured down to Peter's camp, the sound of laughter and drumbeats guiding her way until she stared down at it through the dark trees. With a lurch she realised this was the same place she had first seen Peter's camp all those years ago. She had been wearing a gown that was wet and see-through and she had been embarrassed because Peter had seen.

_That time, that ignorant bliss, is like a dream now. _She sighed, her mind dragging up the past, reflecting on those very early days when she had been so naïve to the dangers of the island and Peter. For all her ignorance she could not deny that she had never been so happy during those heady few weeks. The bonfire blazed, casting the dancing boys into shifting shadows that jumped and twirled, all under the hedonistic sway of Peter's panpipes. Sometimes it felt like no time had passed at all.

"Oh no…" she whispered as she realised one of the smaller boys spinning was Henry Mills. Peter had been steadily wearing the boy down, manipulating him into believing that no one was coming for him, that the only ones that truly cared was Peter and the Lost Boys. It made Wendy feel sick with shame and anger but the only way that Peter could truly claim Henry's heart was if the boy utterly believed Peter and gave it to him freely.

_He did the same to me, once_, she thought suddenly. Peter had once tried to convince her that her place in London with her family was impossible, not after her reputation had been besmirched. Her only option was with him. Half of his reasoning was cruel, a means to pass the tedious time and cause an upheaval in her life but that had turned into something else by the time of her seventeenth birthday party. _He called me his…_

Wendy sighed and leaned against a tree, eyes not really seeing the boys below any longer. She was now a hundred and twelve years old and she felt every non passing of those years in her bones. Now more than ever she longed for change, for liberty and purpose with a restlessness that made her want to scream. She wanted to be free and with that freedom she wanted age. She was not a girl and she wanted that truth to be reflected back at her.

"I want to grow up…"

"Why would anyone want that?" Felix said dryly from behind her and she turned. He was carrying his club over his shoulder, looking as bored and laconic as always. Wendy cocked an eyebrow.

"Peter told you to keep an eye on me didn't he?"

Felix shrugged in answer and inclined his head back towards the jungle. "I'll escort you back."

"How gentlemanly of you," she joked and hooked her arm around his and he rolled his eyes. Wendy glanced up at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Tink told me something rather shocking about you. I don't know whether to believe it or not."

"And what would that be?" he asked, not looking at her as he pushed some hanging vines out of their path.

"That you were once married," she supplied conversationally and not even missing a beat or breaking his stride Felix made a noncommittal humming noise.

"Interesting."

"Interesting!? Come on, don't be such an old woman and tell me the truth," Wendy demanded as they made it to the edge of her lake. Felix snorted.

"An old woman?"

"Felix you are positively matronly. I've never met someone who keeps so many secrets," she turned to him, hands on her hips and looked up into his amused face. He leaned down, mouth curling.

"An old lady has to keep _some_ of her secrets Wendy. What else has she got going for her otherwise?" he joked quietly and straightened as she laughed. As she looked down to the water's edge she gasped and her heart leaped. Peter was standing in the boat.

"Old women like to gossip too, don't they? Do you want to hear something juicy?" Peter asked, hands on his hips. He was grinning, in fact he was trying to not to laugh and Wendy was on alert at once.

"What is it?"

"We've had a surprise guest _quite literally_ drop in on us," he said, jumping up from the boat and landing by her side. He grabbed her hand and spun her around and she laughed despite herself.

"Who has?" she asked as she twirled around to face him. He placed his hands on her waist and tugged her against him, his face close to hers.

"Oh I don't want to spoil the surprise. Come and see," he said and motioned for Felix to go on ahead. Now alone Peter pulled her into his arms and roughly pressed his lips to hers. It was a greedy, needful kiss and she was shocked at the ferocity of it. He would sometimes kiss her in such a way when he was feeling victorious but there was an edge to this one. Wendy pulled back, head tilted.

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing is wrong! Henry is starting to forget his family, he's able to believe things into being with a mere _thought_ and he starting to trust me at last. What could be wrong?"

To the uninitiated he would seem the picture of giddy delight, of unbridled happiness but Wendy could see the cracks, the change in him. His smiles, for all their fierceness, seemed hollow, like he was wearing a mask.

"Is it getting to you?" she tapped gently at his chest and he paused, expression blank before he shrugged.

"It doesn't matter, I can pretend better than anyone. As long as he's fooled that's all that matters."

"Is it?" Wendy gripped his arms and stared fixedly into his eyes. He started to smirk slowly, pulling her closer to him. The clouds above drifted apart and pale shafts of moonlight fell on the jungle.

"I've missed you. I actually want to spend tonight with you," he said casually, his head dipping down to her neck and Wendy nodded.

"You're having nightmares," she guessed and he drew back. Instead of denying it he frowned lightly.

"I thought being unburdened of a heart would make a difference but still they visit me…" he drifted off, looking uncomfortable and Wendy sighed.

"Is a heart such a burden?"

Peter paused before answering, a strange smile on his lips. "Maybe you should try mine bird and find out."

Wendy blinked in shock but before she could think of a response or recover he grinned and pulled on her hand, tugging her after him. "Where are we going?"

"I have a surprise for you remember! One I think you'll be _exceedingly_ happy with!" he said and ran and Wendy tried to keep up, pulling up her night gown. They ran until they reached a set of caves that she recognised at once.

"The Echo Caves?"

"Yes but I haven't moved him yet," Peter said and pulled her over to a bamboo grove where a few of his boys were loitering. They made a path for Peter and Wendy and she was lead to a clearing. In the centre of it was a wicker cage. Heart in her throat Wendy peered through the bars and jerked back with a gasp.

"Baelfire!"

"I believe he prefers Neal now. Can't blame him."

"Shut up! What are you doing?" she yelled, turning on Peter and he stared at her in mock affront.

"I thought you'd be pleased to see him again!"

"Why is he in a cage?"

"Why do you _think_?" Peter said nastily and jerked his head. The Lost Boys hoisted the cage up on their shoulders and walked into the cave. Wendy moved after them but Peter ringed his hand around her wrist, stopping her. "He used to be a Lost Boy, he knows the layout of Neverland, he knows my tricks. He'll try to rescue Henry."

"Are you surprised?!"

"No, it's nauseatingly predictable. I won't harm him, not if he gives me reason to. I'm rather fond of him and his father actually, I've been watching over that family since Rumple was a _wee lad_," he mocked in a Scottish accent and Wendy pulled her hand away in disgust.

"You've heaped nothing but misery on that family. You've schemed and moved them around like chess pieces."

"I know," he answered with unfiltered pride and Wendy snarled and turned on her heel.

"I think there is a big part of you that resents them because you've known for years and years that your _replacement_ would spring from that family and you hate them for it," she uttered waspishly and the leaves above her head suddenly whipped angrily through the air in a sudden gust of wind.

"Angry? I'm anything _but_! If it wasn't for them and my careful manoeuvring to make sure Henry was born at the right time and to the right people I wouldn't have my heart!" he all but shouted. "And he's _not_ my bloody replacement!" he added in severe annoyance.

Wendy smirked before shaking her head sadly. "Keep telling yourself that Peter, one day you might even believe it." She walked away into the trees, leaving Peter alone before the dark opening of the caves.

* * *

**a.n:**

_What will Wendy do? I wonder... ;)_

_To clear up some confusion: yes Tink is pregnant. I dropped hints to it at the end of The Riddle of his Being. I don't just add big plot points as they pop into my head, all this has been planned ;)_

_I will update again over the weekend. Thank you so much for the response so far, it's been fantastic and I'm so happy! :D_


	4. Chapter 4

Peter had planned for this year for centuries, had doggedly sought out seers and other means to see into the future and then meticulously mapped his way to successfully acquiring the heart. Wendy did not have the opportunity to consult repeatedly with seers but she did have time and in all those years she listened to the snippets of information that Peter let slip and stored them away. She planned for success and she planned for failure but this was not something she had foreseen.

Baelfire, now a grown man called Neal Cassidy, was a prisoner. Peter believed him to be dangerous, that he held to much knowledge and could sabotage his plans but Wendy could see the game behind Peter's actions. If he honestly thought Bae was a threat he could send him away or kill him but placing him in the Echo Caves, the easiest and swiftest place to go without notice, smacked of theatrics. Peter was playing and she knew deep down she was a participant, a pawn that he wanted to use when the time was right. She had known this for a long time but now that it was happening it made that old, raw and belligerent need to defy him rise. She was not a plaything.

She approached the cave entrance, stepping lightly and smiled sweetly when the Twins looked up. They were identical, tall and very handsome and she had guessed long ago that one of them had a crush on her. It was the only way to tell them apart. The one on the right stood up and smiled and Wendy zeroed in on him, coming forward and offered him and his brother a flask.

"Its mango, I made it myself," she explained and they took it from her gladly. "Peter wants me to check on the prisoner."

"He didn't say anything to us, no one is to go in unless he gives the go ahead," the other twin said. She realised with a sinking feeling that she did not know their names, Peter just called them the Twins because he grew fed up getting their names wrong and she had not bothered to remember. When she first came to Neverland she would have made an effort but that was a lifetime ago, a different person.

Wendy smiled, watching them drink and shrugged lightly. "Oh he didn't say anything to you because he doesn't know I'm here. I lied," she winced apologetically and the boys laughed, not realising what she was doing until they started to sway on their feet. Stepping back smartly she watched them stagger against the cave wall and fall to the ground as the poppy seed draught she had slipped into the juice took effect. She bent down to check if they were breathing unhindered – too much poppy seed could be dangerous. Satisfied she swept a look behind her before disappearing into the cave.

Just as she had kept an eye on Emma over the years she had also watched Baelfire but only ever from a distance. The first time she had seen him grown up, crossing a street in New Jersey, she had been so ecstatically happy but the more she watched him the less that feeling grew. He was a thief and not only that but he had the same cocky, charming attitude that she found winsome in Peter but so off putting in Neal. He was different, he was not the sweet, selfless Baelfire anymore than she was Miss Darling from London. She had never spoken to him, never made her presence known, not because she was disappointed in him but in herself.

_What do I say? How do I look him in the eye? _As these thoughts whirled through her head she came to the small opening to the Echo Cave and stopped there, hesitating. She had to face him, she had to save him. She inhaled deeply, balling her hands up and walked into the cave with her chin up but her stomach writhing.

The Echo Cave was as cavernous and dismal as she remembered, a great yawning abyss at her feet. Though she had been on the island for many years, had explored it from top to bottom she had been to these caves a handful of times. The screams of falling, dying men still plagued her dreams. Dragging her eyes away from the darkness below she looked up and her stomach erupted in a mixture of delight and dread. Neal had already found his way out of the cage but he was now stuck on a small stone island in the middle of the abyss. His back was to her, a hand gripping his hair in exasperation.

"Bae…Baelfire?" her voice was weak but it echoed around the cave and he whipped around at the sound. He stared at her, eyes narrowing and his hand fell from his head slowly.

"…_Wendy_?" he asked in disbelief, slowing moving to the edge of the stone to get a better look at her. Standing in her white nightdress, her hair down and curled as he remembered she had never felt so fraudulent. She looked down with a weak smile, pulling on the white fabric.

"It's me."

"Wendy?" he asked again, clearly unable to believe it and soon his disbelief turned into suspicion. "This could be one of his tricks."

"It's not a trick, I promise. It really is me," she replied with feeling but he still looked unconvinced.

"Prove it."

"Very well…" she thought and finally smiled softly. "I hid you away for six weeks in the nursery cubbyhole and other hidden passages in the house. I would get in trouble so I would be sent to my room just so I could give you food I had taken from the table. It was _quite_ ingenious," she finished with a witticism but her stomach was churning worse than ever. Talking of the past, being reminded of it was a horrible pain.

"You kept saying your brothers were doing it…" Neal recalled wistfully with a smile and then gazed at her in amazement. "It's really you! What the hell are you doing here?"

"It's a long story and one we don't have time for. We have to hurry!" she urged but the truth was she did not want to tell him anything. Finally being face to face with him had dredged up a shame and guilt that was overwhelming. She did not know where to even begin. "Bae, you have to say a secret to get across."

"I know, trouble was there wasn't anyone here to hear it. Not a secret if no one listens," he sighed, hand back in his hair and he suddenly looked stricken. "Is Henry safe? Emma?"

"They're okay, I promise. Please, hurry," she looked behind her anxiously. The Twins could be found and the alarm could be raised any minute.

"Right, right…," he stared at her and then laughed. "I can't believe it's you, God. You don't look any different. Me on the other hand…" his smile faded and he grew serious, staring at the abyss. "I was a thief."

Nothing happened.

"I know that Bae, so it's not a secret."

"Oh…," he stared at her in confusion before concentrating. "I lived in Wonderland with his crazy guy for years, I helped clean and store his hats. Man taught me more about thievery than Pan ever did," he confessed and rocks began to materialise across the abyss. He stepped across.

"Good, just a few more," Wendy urged. Neal smiled at her.

"I don't have many you know, I'm a truthful guy."

"I never doubted it," she smiled but she was shaking. "You lived in Wonderland?"

"Yeah, after I left this place. They don't age there either. I bounced around from one realm to another, all with different laws of time and magic…I'm like over a hundred and fifty years old," he added and more rocks appeared. Wendy's eyebrows shot up but she said nothing.

"Another Bae," she said and tensed when she heard a noise behind her.

"I uh, I never told anyone this, not even Emma," he hesitated, looking sick but confessed. "I resented my mother for a long time. That she left me for Hook, left me with my father...But the worst thing was if she had taken me with her maybe I could have saved her," he said, his skin pale and eyes haunted. More rocks appeared and he was almost to her.

Wendy cocked her head sadly. "I'm sorry Bae."

"It's okay. It's actually Neal now," he corrected softly and Wendy smiled.

"Neal. I think it's safe to say we're not the people we were."

He frowned. "You seem exactly the same. Come on Wendy what are you doing here? I don't understand? Did – did Pan take you?"

Wendy hesitated again, licking her lips and finally nodded. "In a way. I suppose you shouldn't be the only one to voice secrets. Oh the things I've done and even worse the things I _haven't_ done…you'll hate me," she uttered miserably, tears in her eyes and he held out his arms, shaking his head.

"I could never hate you Wendy. Do you wanna hear another secret? I know your family wanted to adopt me and you saw me as a brother but honestly I was half in love with you," he said with wistful longing, for a feeling and boy long gone, and Wendy smiled sadly.

"Well, that would have been awkward…"

"Yeah…You know I think that's why Pan wanted me gone? It was weird but once I started talking about you, about missing you, he got so mad. The look on his face, like he was fighting the need to kill me right then and there…I'll never forget it," he said, his expression dark and he stared at Wendy patiently. Two more secrets and he would be across. It didn't fail to escape her that she been in the same position once with Peter but the secrets shared had been sweet and innocent, this would be anything but.

Wendy steeled herself and confessed, staring at him steadily. "You're right, he did come for me but there's so much you don't know, so much that now I'm looking at you I don't know how to begin."

"Whatever it is, I'm not going to judge you."

She smiled humourlessly. "When you were taken I didn't sleep, I was obsessed with finding a way to get you back. Months went by until Peter came for me. He tricked me, he said he'd let you go if I stayed with him but you were already gone. I want you to know that I fought him, I fought with everything I had and I _did_ escape but I think he's right, it's my fate to be here, to be with him no matter what I might want."

"That's bull," he remarked flatly and Wendy chuckled.

"You're very direct now, I like it...," she trailed off, sombre. "You say I haven't changed but I have. I've been here for ninety four years, I'm a hundred and twelve and that girl that you once knew is gone. I suppose what I'm trying to say, what my deepest secret is and one that I must face is that I'm a terrible person."

"No," Neal shook his head but more rocks appeared at his feet. He looked up in confusion, not crossing.

"We change don't we? Our experiences shape us for better or ill but we always have a choice. We can choose to listen to our conscience or ignore it, we can stick to our moral code or dismantle it. I – I have turned a blind eye to so much here and though my code has not been destroyed it's been twisted beyond recognition."

"What are you talking about?" he asked hastily, looking over her shoulder.

"Peter is my true love, we're lovers and have been for a very long time. I – I love him but I hate what he does…but I hate myself more. My whole purpose for coming here was to save you but once I was here I _forgot_ all about you, I didn't ask where you were, if you were okay because the longer I stayed the harder it was to care. You sacrificed yourself for the safety of my family and I have repaid you by helping Peter murder your son."

The last words formed the bridge across the abyss and it was complete. Neal did not move. He stared at Wendy in disbelief that shifted into a disgust that made tears run down her face until he stood there drained and disappointed. He sighed and came forward and she stood waiting for whatever punishment he would deal. She felt so boneless, so limp that he could push her into the void and she would not stop him. So when he pulled her into his arms she was too shocked to do anything but cry harder.

"You're right, we're not the same people we were. I've done things that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I sent the woman I love to _jail_ and abandoned her because I was a gullible idiot. But the only way I can make up for that is being there for her and Henry now, if that's what she wants. I don't know what you've been through Wendy, but there's no way that anyone can live with Pan for all this time and not be fucked up," he said plainly and Wendy laughed against his shoulder before sighing.

"Bae, I'm _so_ sorry. Just – just please believe that I know what I must do now, I want to do some good. I'll do everything I can to save your son, I promise on everything I hold dear," she stared intently into his eyes, willing him to believe and he kissed her forehead.

"Come on shorty, let's get out of here."

* * *

She knew something was wrong as they ran through the jungle, heading towards Bowline Point and the cove where Hook's ship was anchored. Any second she anticipated ambush but no boys descended on them.

"Where's Pan's camp?"

"To the east, by the Mermaid's Lagoon," she told him and slowed when Neal came to a sudden stop.

"Then why are we going south? I have to get Henry."

"No, you need to regroup with Emma and the rest," she went to him as he shook his head stubbornly and took his hands. "Listen to me, the only way you're going to get your son back is if I get him for you. I can move into Pan's camp freely and he doesn't suspect me."

_Well, not as much as he could_, she thought but kept it to herself. Neal still looked unconvinced.

"He wants Henry's heart and he's going to twist him into a Lost Boy to do it. That's what he does, he fools you into believing that the people who love you have forgotten you. He did that to me and I can guess he did the same thing to you. I'm not going to let that happen to my son. I have to get him now."

"And we will. Please, you have to trust me. I have a plan and it's one that relies on you and the ship being at a certain place and time. I will bring Henry to a site where Peter cannot get to him and from there you can save your son."

"Where?"

"Skull Rock."

"What? Pan can enter that place easily," he said in confusion and Wendy shook her head.

"I can't say any more than that. Rescuing you was far too easy, he should have come for us by now. I think he wanted you to be freed so please just go before he changes his mind!" She pushed him in the direction of the shore where the Jolly Roger was docked and he hesitated before gathering her up in a fierce hug.

"You're getting on that ship with me and we're all going home."

Wendy smiled, saying nothing and stepped back as he walked away. Before he was out of her sight she called after him, a thought plaguing her.

"Have you ever met the Blue Fairy?"

"…Yeah. She was the one who gave me the bean that lead to your world. Why?"

"Oh, just curious…Quick, go and surprise your family!" she instructed and he ran, disappearing into the trees. Now alone Wendy thought on what he had said and moved towards Peter's camp, her thoughts preoccupied. The Blue Fairy, once queen of a vast fairy court, had touched the lives of everyone Wendy had encountered. She may have lightly influenced some lives but others, like Peter and Baelfire, she had shaped in ways that neither could have foreseen. If she had the opportunity to talk to Emma and her family she would probably find similar occurrences of the fairy's latent influence. Peter might be orchestrating what was happening on the island but Wendy knew that even he had strings pulled by another. She just had to find why and how to stop it.

As she reached a swing bridge over a deep ravine the air was rent by the sound of crowing and she stilled in the sudden silence that followed before drawing out the short blade she had hidden under her dress. She knew that cry and what it foretold.

"Show yourself," she demanded and at once boys appeared out of the trees and lined up along the edges of the cliff. Their weapons were not drawn but she kept a firm grip on her own. Wendy turned sharply and found Peter and Felix standing behind her.

"_Really_?" Peter asked, staring insolently at her sword. "You just betrayed me and now you're pointing a sword in my face?"

"_I_ betrayed _you_?" she spluttered in disbelief as he nodded to the boys across the ravine.

"Yap at Bae's heels but don't touch him," Peter instructed them carelessly as they melted away into the jungle. Then he focused his attention on Wendy. "Yes, _betrayal_, what else was it?"

"You put him in a cage! You might as well have put Michael or John in there. He's like my brother."

"Hardly," Peter scoffed and Wendy felt herself heating in shame. "We both know he's been the furthest thing from your mind for a long time now, and he knows it too." Peter moved closer to her and she backed away involuntarily, stepping onto the swing bridge. He stopped, cocking his head. "Are you frightened of me?"

"No," she answered immediately and he gazed at her fixedly.

"Then lower your weapon," he urged gently and after a hesitating moment she did. Far below water surged and raced, a violent torrent. When she looked back up she was nodding.

"It was a trick, you planned it all. You wanted me to save him."

Something flickered in his eyes, a dull look that could be mistaken for hurt, if he had a heart. "No, quite the opposite bird. I wouldn't have harmed him, no matter what you think. I'm quite fond of him. It was a game Wendy, a test to see who would get to him first and you failed."

Wendy bristled. "I set him free."

"Yes, you succeeded but in the process proved where your loyalties lie and they're _clearly_ not with me," he said and she could not ignore the hurt in his voice. Feeling a terrible whooping guilt she moved to him, hand outreached but he shook his head.

"Peter…"

"No. I've been severely deluded these last few years, that weak, cursed heart clouding my judgement. My feelings for you have always been a liability and it wasn't something I planned for. I thought your love was unquestionable but I was wrong."

"No! I do love you," she stressed and all her shame, guilt and doubt melted away under that certainty. "Yes I want to help them, I don't want anyone to die because it's the _right thing to do_. But I _do_ love you, I _always_ will even if I shouldn't."

She dropped her sword and cupped his face. His expression was stern, like an angry boy-king, before he started to smirk very softly, leaning close to her.

"If I had a heart I'd probably cry but I don't. My point still stands: you are a liability and I can't let you jeopardize this for me. I do love you, though I shouldn't," he added after a thought, mimicking her and Wendy steeled herself for what he was going to say. "Half the reason I'm in this mess is because of you. If I had never met you I wouldn't be cursed."

"I never asked you to do it, that was your choice," she retorted softly, dropping her hands, and glanced at Felix. He looked like he wished the earth to swallow him. She and the Lost Boy had talked fleetingly about their part in Peter becoming cursed and she knew it still sat heavy in him. She could only imagine what Peter may have said to him with no heart to hold him back. Now it seemed it was her turn.

"We had just met and I sacrificed my heart for you…" he shook his head at the unfairness of it, the strangeness. "Isn't fate a funny thing? If we weren't true love I doubt I would have done it."

"_Please_," Wendy uttered scornfully, tired of him laying the blame anywhere but on himself. "You wanted Blue dead and you were just handed a convenient excuse to do it."

He smiled. "Yes it's true and one day I'll have her heart and I'll make her beg for mercy…but to do that I need to be strong." He placed his palm against her face, thumb brushing her cheek and she froze. "So I can't have you risking that. This isn't a punishment," he said and her insides fisted tightly.

"What?"

"I'm doing this to keep you safe. You told Neal about us, Hook must remember and I just can't risk it. I thought keeping you in the cave would be enough but clearly not. You're still that stubborn, wilful girl I rescued from the sea," he added fondly as he lifted a hand and wagged his fingers. A trope of boys appeared carrying a wicker cage on their shoulders.

"You can't!" she shouted and backed away, preparing to run, to jump into the river if she had to when Peter grabbed her.

"I'd rather have you hate me than dead. Put her in the cage and be watchful. Don't be fooled by anything she says or does, she's cunning and she'll play on your sympathies," he instructed and threw Wendy to the boys as she struggled. He and Felix left, not looking back.

"Peter! Peter!" she screamed, kicking and hitting any boy that touched her until she was stuffed into the cage. The lost boys looked deeply perturbed but every last one was loyal to Peter and no manner of pleading would sway them. With a sudden vicious need she wished that Rufio was there but her ill-fated captain was dead, her brothers were on a different world and she had just sent Baelfire away.

She was trapped.

* * *

**a.n:**

_Update again in a few days! Thanks for reading!_


	5. Chapter 5

There was a story she was told as a child, a very old story. Long ago the elders of her people left the seas and lived on land. This was not peculiar, as merfolk conceive and give birth on land before they return back to the water. But the settlement of Neverland had been unprecedented and nothing like it had happened before or since.

"He was a little boy, with no mother or father and the whole island was his creation," Tiger Lily explained as she showed John around the empty school library in which she worked. It had been a week since he and Michael had arrived and while people gave them odd looks and asked where they had come from they were usually left undisturbed. The seers and the woman before him had been nothing but hospitable. He sat on the edge of a desk, hanging on her every word.

"Peter…" he said the name quietly, as if not wanting to be overheard. Well, he was in a library.

"He was different, not the young man we know now. He was playful and incredibly powerful but only used that power to please himself and others. But he was lonely and so they took pity on him and decided to stay. He would not come into the water with them because he didn't belong. He could fly then like a lark and his place was in the air, like a bird not a fish."

Tiger Lily rolled her eyes as John smiled, watching her slotting books into place. They had only met briefly before she was placed in the town and cursed but the meeting was something he played over and over in his mind for years afterwards. She had promised to see him again, a vow laden with half a threat, half a need and he had spent almost three decades waiting with a strange desire.

The woman he had tied up – a transgression he had since apologised profusely for until she told him to be quiet – was now transformed into a new identity, thanks to the curse. Her aloofness and timidity would shatter under a burst of emotion or plain unpredictability and playfulness that reminded John of a seal. The biggest change that Tiger Lily had faced as Tallulah had been her deep abiding fear of the sea. For a mermaid that was like a human being scared of taking a breath.

"Eventually they wanted to go home, they couldn't resist the song and pull of the waves. They grew sick of the ground under their feet and that sickness started to turn inwards," she curled her hands towards her chest, where his old glasses still hung. "If we don't go home we wither away, dry up like old leaves…have you read The Little Mermaid? He said we had no souls and turn into sea foam when we die. I always hated that when I read it to the kids and I never knew why."

Her hands began to shake and she gripped the spectacles and turned to John. He rose and went to her, smiling softly.

"You have a soul…I mean, if you believe that?" he could not presume anything. She was a stranger to him, not even human, but someone that he wanted to know more and more. In fact he awoke with her name on his lips and her voice in his ears. Not that he would ever admit that to her…

"Oh if I talked about merfolk we'd be here for years! It changes from realm to realm…"

"I did wonder," he began delicately, fingering a book spine on a shelf, "how mermaids…procreated," he finished tactfully and Tiger Lily snorted.

"Procreated! I would have used reproduced or propagate! Your _very_ mannered sensibilities are cute," she teased and he shrugged with a smile, looking down and adjusted his glasses. "We conceive and give birth on land and after a few months we go back to the sea."

"Like seals," he added with a smile and she nodded.

"Though more like turtles, we go back to the land we were originally born on when we decide to have children…" she trailed off and a haunting sadness grew in her eyes. John blinked, a new and intense feeling swelling up inside. Wendy had often told him that Neverland was her home but to his ears it sounded too forced, as if trying to convince herself rather than him. He saw the island as a terrible prison, even for Pan, but if seen at the right angle and on a good day it could be the most wonderful place but not a place to live. He never considered the island a home, that it could have the same pull on a soul as London had for him.

"I'm sorry," he uttered softly but then frowned. "How can you give birth on the island? Nothing grows old."

Tiger Lily smiled mysteriously. "Well for one we are not human but there are stories, myths about that. Some say that a mermaid was pregnant already and gave birth there and from there my people came to be. Neverland is an extension of Pan but it is part of us, it runs through our veins and we were there before him. If the realm was destroyed…?" she trailed off, tensing her shoulders at the implication.

"We want to stop Pan and save Wendy from his influence but I understand that the island is more than just a place, that it's important. If he is disposed and another takes his place the island will remain and might even grow stronger, according to Agnes and Edith."

Tiger Lily shook her head, looking conflicted but said nothing. John sighed, leaning closer to her automatically. She eyed him peripherally and he was left wanting.

"I think you're meddling in things you don't really understand."

John laughed and she shushed him on instinct. "Sorry. It's just that Michael and myself have been saying that for more years than I can count. We get sent vague orders, we get given riddles and are expected to solve them in hopes that we accomplish some task that honestly we don't really understand. We made fun of some of the other employers who knew less than us but we're no better. We're stumbling around in the dark, in something that's bigger than us but that's life, isn't it? I will keep going because I want to protect the ones I love in the hopes that one day I won't have any more riddles to solve or odd places to go. I just want my family safe."

An inertia of years was tinged on every syllable and the previous harshness on her face melted away. She gazed at him, her large black eyes warm, and he could not look away. She suddenly stood on her tip toes and pressed her mouth to his and then quickly turned on her heel before she could see his expression.

"I have to learn to swim, will you help me?"

"…Uh – I, of course!" he managed, his face hot and pointlessly readjusted his glasses again. She moved to leave but he dodged ahead and opened the door for her and she rolled her eyes again but smiled, tugging on his scarf as he passed. As he walked ahead down the corridor, looking like an imperious bank clerk, Tiger Lily started to whistle a tune that was now like nails on a chalkboard but he gave her a narrow, playful gaze over his shoulder. She lifted her palms up with a blameless expression.

"What? I'm following the leader! Lead on!"

* * *

"A box, so big," Lucy placed her hands in front of her, using them to demonstrate the size. Like her aunties she had the gift of prophecy and had seen the item that they needed to help their cause. Why they needed a box Michael couldn't say but then he had stopped questioning the odd things that the seers proclaimed as they almost always came true.

They walked down the sidewalk, towards the pawn shop, and the red headed woman walked with an easy grace. He had to confess that he found her oddly fascinating. The aunties, who he was half convinced were a pair of fallen goddesses, were personable and presented an oddity that was very human. Their niece, a woman who they had searched years to find, was something else. Though polite and quiet there was a distance to her, a sharp danger that Michael could not shake but instead of feeling perturbed he was captivated.

"What sort of box?"

Lucy waved her hands elegantly and then patted the air gently. She frowned. "…It's a prison for hope," she answered vaguely and smiled in apology. "I'm sorry, it comes to me in puzzle pieces and they never fit."

"Ah don't give in yet, I happen to be _rather_ accomplished at The New York Times crossword," he joked and she smiled faintly. Clearing his throat he looked ahead, thinking and then it came to him suddenly. He snapped his fingers. "Of course, it's obvious."

"What is it?"

"Pandora's Box."

"Duh," she said and he grinned at her as they came to Gold's Pawn Shop. The Dark One was now in Neverland and he had to confess that he experienced a giddy thrill knowing that Pan was now meeting his match but on the heels of that feeling came a sinking worry, like a quicksand. He prayed that Wendy was safe and was keeping her wits about her. He long stopped underestimating his sister, something that John was still struggling with. She was not the same and far more capable than either of them could hope to be.

"So we give that box to the mermaid?" he asked, drawing up from his thoughts. Her sightless blue eyes were trained on him, her head cocked to the side in contemplation. He was often beset with the idea that she could read minds as well as see the future. Finally she nodded, looking away.

"That is what my aunts have seen. She will swim to Neverland and deliver the box to the ship."

"But why?" he asked. Lucy shrugged. The shop was closed, the shutters drawn but Michael knocked anyway. "I hope it can help because when Pan finds out we're playing double agent he'll do something to harm Wendy."

"Do you believe that?" she asked from behind him and he stared at her reflection in the glass.

"Yes. He won't hurt her, at least I believe he won't but there are many ways to inflect pain without touching someone. He's like a dying animal, at the point of glory or failure and like any wounded animal he is vicious in a corner and she's the closest thing. I don't want to inflict that on Wendy."

"Maybe she can take care of herself…" she uttered in a vague, dreamlike voice and Michael turned with a proud smile.

"I don't doubt it but I'd rather not take that risk."

"Sometimes it's not up to us. We play our parts as far as we can and then they have to go the rest of the way alone. I often waited for someone to save me but no one did, it took me a long time to realise I was waiting on myself," she spoke softly, clearly lost in the past and Michael moved to her. He was deeply curious but knew not to touch on something that was painful and yet he could not shake the certainty that he had found a kindred spirit in the woman. A quiet, suffering shadow that hung behind his eyes was also in hers.

"Perhaps…However we do have a very pressing matter to deal with. If Tiger Lily can't swim then we're stuffed, to put it elegantly," he sighed as she laughed quietly and they moved towards the school where Lucy worked as a music teacher. They were to meet John and Tiger Lily there.

"Pan has blocked the way in and out using portal beans after the pirate ship left. He would have to be devoid of magic or dead for us to get in that way. Which is the same result for Pan, of course."

"Yes. Now the only way in is by traversing the thin spots, the seams that the mermaids use to swim between realms. Unless…" Michael paused on the road, a sudden clap of remembrance hitting him.

Lucy smiled faintly, as if knowing what he was thinking. Maybe she did. "_Unless_?"

"Unless we use another method. There's a man with a way but first I have to find him, he might not even be here now for all I know."

"Or maybe he is," she said and cleared her throat pointedly. Michael looked up and saw a girl with honey blonde hair jumping down the front steps of the school, shortly followed by a man carrying her book bag.

"Come on, we gotta get back in time for tea," the little girl's father said and then glanced at Michael. All the blood drained from his face as he froze and a look of utter horror appeared in his eyes. "No."

"Jefferson," Michael uttered and felt the most intense guilt. The last time he had seen the man he had been a gibbering wreck rocking back and forth. He looked better but the devastated, exhausted look that appeared in his eyes would haunt Michael until he died. As Grace came forward, curious, Jefferson placed a hand on her shoulder and pointed a shaking finger at Michael.

"You stay away from me."

"I – I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry but I really need your help," he pleaded but then wished he hadn't. Jefferson became still, frozen like a rabbit before he laughed madly and it made his skin crawl. Grace looked up at her father as he laughed and laughed until she started to tug on his sleeve.

"Papa, stop it. Look at me," she said quietly and Jefferson blinked and looked down at her softly smiling face. "Everything is okay. Let's go home," she spoke with a calm confidence and compassion and Michael suspected it was something that Grace had to do often. She was a child but one with responsibilities that most do not shoulder.

"We should be going," Lucy advised Michael and took his hand, drawing him away. Michael, writhing with shame but also with a desire to talk to the hatter, to make him see reason followed her lead and left the school.

"I wish I could explain," he muttered miserably but Lucy shook her head.

"He would have punched you in the face. Spare the child that," she sighed sadly and moved under a tree to a bench, where she sat and after a moment Michael joined her. They remained in a heavy silence until Michael spoke again.

"Because of Pan that man's mind is now a wasteland. That was my fault, I should never have asked for his help."

"Hmm, the blame game is a tangled web in this affair. The hatter might blame you, you might blame Pan and he will blame someone else. These events, this fate has been in the works for such a long, long time that even I was ensnared in it but I know who's at the centre," as she spoke her faint, dreamlike voice become as hard and sharp as ice and Michael felt his muscles seizing up.

"The fairy," he whispered and she nodded, her face a harsh mask.

"She put me in a cage as a child and made me tell her what the future had in store for her. This lasted for years and years until I ripped my eyes out. She pawned me off then to warlords and despots, thinking I was useless but they grew back," she stared down at her palms and Michael took her hand and laced his fingers through hers before he could stop himself.

They said nothing more, just sat with their fingers locked together until John and Tiger Lily arrived.

* * *

She woke, stiff and sore and moved onto her back. She jerked in surprise as the cage wavered from side to side and she got onto her knees and stared up. They had stuck her in a box shaped wicker cage and while she slept it had been suspended a few inches off the ground. Not only had she been moved but the cage was no longer a simple box but was now shaped like an oval bird cage, high enough to stand in. Gripping the bars she got to her feet and looked behind her, trying to figure out whereabouts she was. It was silent so she summarised it was well away from the camp. He still wanted her out of sight.

As she turned back around, gripping the bars for balance as the cage swung, she inhaled sharply when she realised she wasn't alone. Peter sat crossed legged on the ground before the cage. His elbows were resting on his knees and his hand cupping his chin he stared up at her in contemplation. She stared down at him through hooded lids before waving a hand around the cage.

"Is this a joke?"

"I don't know is it?" he asked, lifting his head as she glared down at him.

"Do you think this is a game?"

"Of course!" he cried, grinning but Wendy could tell when he was pretending. She gazed at him intensely until he averted his eyes and sighed in annoyance. "Will you sit down? You're giving me neck ache."

"Then I think I'll stand," she retorted. Her tongue was sharp but it was nothing to the acidic rage that was curdling up inside her. She wanted to scream at the very top of her lungs, just pour all her anger, hurt and betrayal out at him but knew it was pointless. He was a stone in a river, everything she said would slip past him.

"Please?" he said quietly, rubbing at his eyes tiredly, shoulders slumping and Wendy blinked. She could count the times she had seen him honestly drained on one hand and it was fleeting, quickly concealed with a grin and seamless bounding energy. Frowning she lowered slowly down to the cage floor and stared at him with a weary scepticism.

"I want out of this mockery," she said firmly and he smirked, looking up at the cage.

"Well you always said you were a bird in a cage, it's only fitting. Shame I didn't think of it," he said pointedly and Wendy's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"What were you just dreaming? I bet I can guess," he flourished a hand at the cage and Wendy flushed, realising what she had done. "Your dreams slipping free and effecting the real world was always a problem, wasn't it?" he spoke with a forgiving tenderness and Wendy leaned closer, baring her teeth.

"Don't try to soften this Peter! You _dare_ treat me like this? What gives you the right?"

He blinked, taken aback. "The right? This is my island and it's never been in more danger. I have to do everything I can to protect it. _That_ is my right."

"Protect yourself more like," she uttered scornfully and he rolled his eyes and sighed but Wendy carried on. "God I feel like such a fool…do you remember the last time I was in a cage?" she asked and he shifted, uncomfortable at the memory.

"You were dying."

"I was. Do you remember that little speech that you made? I do, I'll never forget it. You said that you tricked me into believing you loved me, to punish me for taking you away from the island. You said that the only thing that really mattered to you was Neverland."

Peter shook his head, looking even more uneasy. In fact he looked sick, his skin pale and sweaty. "It was a lie, it was just pretend."

"Is this pretend?" she asked, motioning to the cage but the gesture conveyed more. "Because I feel like I'm back in that very same cage and all this time has been one big joke on me. Your greatest pretend."

"If only it was, it would make this so much easier but it's not. The sand in the hourglass is almost empty Wendy. I can't look at it anymore, I don't have to. I can feel it, I can _feel_ it slipping away from me and you know what I think? Do you know what I dream of? You," he confessed hollowly and tried to smirk but it didn't have any of his usual mirth in it.

"Me?"

"Yes. You're not in there because I'm angry, or worried about what you'll do, you're in there because I don't know what I will do if _anything_ happened to you. I don't have a heart and frankly I'm better off without it but I know what I feel and it's not a pretend. I wish it was, then I could just focus on getting the heart and saving myself but then there's you…_you_," he finished in a tone that was half exasperation, half adoration.

Wendy pressed her forehead against the bars, her fingers hooked over them and stared into his eyes. "You say all these things and believe you love me in your own way, as I love you…but I don't trust you."

"_Good_, that would be foolish," he joked before touching the back of her fingers with his own though the bars. He stared at her seriously. "My time is running out and the boy is proving stubborn. I need your input."

Wendy leaned back and pulled her hand away and felt a hollow dull blow of disappointment. "I see your game now. What do you want me to do?" she asked tiredly and he said nothing for a long time, just clenched his jaw until he spoke.

"It's not enough making him feel he's one of us, he clearly has a complex," he said and ignored Wendy when she snorted derisively. "He wants to feel like he's a hero, that he's doing something noble. He needs to see that giving me his heart is for the greater good. He needs something to save and it might as well be you. Pretend you're sick, pretend you're dying and if he doesn't help you and the end of magic will be the price."

Wendy could concede it was a good plan and she always knew that she had a part to play in whatever deception Peter would spin but she felt a stinging rankle of anger. She always imagined that she would do it shoulder to shoulder with Peter, not through the bars of a cage. Though she was loath to consider it her predicament was the essence of her time in Neverland.

"So you want me to fool him?"

"Yes. We both know you can play the part. Just think," he said suddenly with a realisation, "he'll be scarifying his heart willingly to save your life, just as I did."

Wendy gazed at him with eyes like stones. "You think you're alike but you're not. You had a choice but he's being lied to. We're tricking him."

"We're giving him a _gentle_ push in the right direction," he corrected, moving to his knees. He used the bars of the cage to help himself stand but Wendy was too angry to notice his weakness. She rose with him.

"You know I talked about playing pretend and my god you're the biggest culprit! You've spent years and years fooling yourself into pretending that this is the way that it has to be because you're too arrogant and _scared_ to consider the alternative! You could tell him that the reason he's here is because it's his birth right! It's his destiny to save this place, to save magic and if he has a shred of forgiveness he could save you too!"

"I'm not listening to this. You can either agree to help and I'll let you out or you can wait until it's done. But remember it's more than my life on the line. Think of your brothers. Your choice," he muttered in annoyance and turned. As he did he threw out his arm for balance, as if dizzy and Wendy sucked in a shocked breath. As the sand in hourglass drained away she had witnessed occasions where Peter appeared thin, as if he was not all there but it lasted mere moments. But as he turned he wavered and then simply disappeared and around him the jungle faded away, leaving behind a nothingness that Wendy had seen before.

"Peter!" she yelled, a spike of icy dread shooting through her, but then exhaled in shaky relief as he and the trees reappeared. He staggered on his feet, back to her and then turned. He had a hand to his nose and he pulled away bloody fingertips with a deeply confused expression.

"I went away," he whispered before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor.

"Peter! Peter!" she cried out, trying to reach him through the cage but she couldn't. She gripped the bars and shook them furiously, trying to break out but they would not budge. She screamed again, screamed so loudly that birds burst out from the treetops and monkeys screeched in answer. Finally she yelled for Felix in a croaky voice and the bamboo leaves started to shake but it was not the lanky blonde boy who appeared in the clearing.

It was Henry Mills.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_What will happen? Find out in a few days ;)_


	6. Chapter 6

"…Who are you? What happened?" he froze, staring between Peter on the ground and Wendy in the cage.

"Help me! Help _him_!" she begged fiercely, arm stretched out through the bars, trying to reach Peter but he was too far away. Confused the boy moved to Peter and knelt down, touching his shoulder. Wendy held her breath, hands now wrapped around the bars of her cage in a white knuckle grip.

"He's breathing. I don't understand," Henry looked back at her, narrowing his eyes in thought. "Are – are you Wendy Darling?"

"Yes, yes but that doesn't matter. You have to let me out," she rose, pressing herself against the door of the cage but Henry shook his head.

"I don't have a key."

"You don't need one, Peter doesn't have one," she explained and then winced when Henry's eyes widened in shock.

"He put you in there? Did he keep you here like me?" he came forward, looking concerned and while Wendy wished that she had not said anything she knew it was for the best. She had to gain the boy's trust and placing herself in the same boat as him was the only way. She did not want to lie to him.

"Yes…and no. It's a long story and not one we have time for. Please, you _can_ get me out. All you have to do is believe that you can," she urged and Henry frowned, looking at Peter who was still on the ground. He breathed shallowly, his back rising and falling but his skin was deathly pale. Though she was scared she dreaded what would happen if he woke up.

"He made me believe that I could turn a stick into a sword…but how do I know that wasn't just him tricking me?" he shook his head in disbelief and Wendy took hold of his arm through the bars and gazed at him intently.

"You have no idea what you are capable of. Close your eyes and lift your hand," she instructed and after a pause he did it. Wendy gently curled his fingers towards his palm and folded her hand over his. "This cage has a small silver key, like one to a music box. When you open your hand it'll be there."

"How?" he asked, his eyes closed. He was still not convinced of his worth.

"Because you believe it will be…and because I don't want to wait for Peter to die to be free," her voice shook but she kept it together. Henry inhaled, frowning heavily in concentrating and as he exhaled slowly his fingers uncurled.

A small, silver key was sitting in the centre of his palm. Not waiting for him to open his eyes Wendy snatched it from him and unlocked the door hastily. She dropped to her knees beside Peter and turned him over and she could not stop the tears swelling in her eyes. Henry looked down at his kidnapper awkwardly, pretending not to see her tears.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's dying," she whispered, brushing Peter's hair back tenderly before she looked up. Her tears were gone.

"I thought _magic_ was dying, that's what he told me. That I was the only one who could save it," he absentmindedly touched his chest, over his heart and Wendy felt a spike of intense pity. Every boy on the island may look young but they had lifetimes of experience. Henry was a true child of eleven, one mature due to his upbringing but a child none the less. He should be playing at school and have a safe home to go back to, not manipulated and chased through a jungle for his life.

"Magic is dying but so is Peter and Neverland. Don't you see? It's all one and the same," she said and then jerked up as the sound of crowing began in the distance. Henry gasped, looking in that direction through the jungle.

"The Lost Boys."

Wendy's weapon had been taken from her so she tugged Peter's small sword out from its sheath with grim determination and jumped to her feet as the bamboo started to sway.

"Get behind me," she ordered and pulled Henry behind her when he did not move. In the distance a bird whistle sounded, a way for the boys to communicate their position and she knew who it was. Wendy whipped around and pointed in the opposite direction with the blade. "Run, I'll hold them off!"

"But what about you? I – I can protect you," Henry spluttered and Wendy smiled and stared deeply into his eyes.

"You can but this isn't your fight. Run as hard and fast as you can towards Skull Rock, your family is there waiting for you. If I don't make it there climb to the top of the rock and find the Never bird, she'll keep you safe."

"My family? They're really here?!" he cried out in rapture and Wendy's felt a lacerating pain go through her. If things had been different she would have raised Henry to be her son. Maybe in another universe he was. She quickly kissed his cheek and pushed him away.

"Go! If all goes to plan I'll catch up to you shortly. GO!" she yelled, jabbing the sword in the air and he started to run.

"I'll save you! I'll save this place!" he yelled and disappeared as Felix came bursting through the bamboo. He took one look at Peter and instead of pursuing Henry he got down on a knee and checked Peter's pulse. He exhaled in relief, slumping and then looked up at Wendy wearily. She pointed the sword at him and he titled his head with the most intense derision she had ever seen and immediately lowered the weapon.

"This is it Felix," she said and he nodded. Once the truth of Peter's curse had been revealed to both and how they had each played a part they had agreed long ago to do everything in their power to save Peter and killing Henry Mills was not the way.

"I'll take him to the Fountain of Youth, there's still some left," he explained and rose calmly when the other boys came rushing into the clearing. Seeing that Wendy was free and Peter on the floor they pointed their weapons at her threateningly. Experiencing an intense feeling of deja-vu Wendy lifted the sword, prepared to draw blood and run but Felix stared at them with a fierce intensity she had hardly seen.

"Not another step."

"But she's free!" one of them from the back shouted and the others yelled in agreement. Felix clenched his jaw and pointed down at Peter.

"Your leader is lying at your feet and you're worried about her?! Four of you pick him up and carry him to the top of Dead Man's Peak. Now."

There was a tense silence before four boys all rushed forward and very carefully lifted Peter onto their shoulders. The other boys parted to let them through and were then gone. The boys remaining looked confused, scared and angry and some of that ire was directed at Wendy. In fact it would not surprise her that some must have been holding onto it for quite some time and only the threat of death from Peter to hold them back.

"He gave us an express order. She wasn't to go free," one of the twins griped and she saw with a sinking feeling it was the one smitten with her. She supposed her trick had soured his feelings.

"Are you serious? Do you have any idea what's happening right now?" Felix demanded and the lost boys shuffled though some of the older ones looked on grimly. "If Peter dies, if this island sinks what do you think will happen to us? This is about our lives as well as his." The tall blonde boy looked back at Wendy. "I know you're all confused and angry but I'm not going to let history repeat itself," he stared at Wendy significantly and she inclined her head in acceptance. She stared at the boys and lifted her chin.

"Peter is sick, he's dying and we have to save him."

"How? What do we do now? Who – who's the leader?" a small boy asked, one that she knew still wept at night. Felix straightened, still standing between them and Wendy.

"Peter will be back to his rightful place when this is all over but right now the second in command is in charge and that's who you'll take orders from," Felix said sternly and the Lost Boys relaxed in relief. Wendy nodded, smiling but then froze when he turned and pointed at her.

"Me?"

"Who else?"

Wendy blinked, looking from Felix's loyal, stoic face and then to the other boys. Most looked bewildered, quite a lot were angry but she could see a few smiles of acceptance. Somewhere Rufio is shouting in joy she thought as she stepped forward and regarded the Lost Boys.

"Right then…Felix go to Peter and make sure he's okay. A dozen of you follow me and anyone who has any qualms about my leadership can tie themselves to Marooners' Rock. Clear?"

At her deadly polite question roars and crows of support rent the air and with a new, elating feeling of purpose Wendy turned on her heel and led a troupe of Lost Boys towards Skull Rock and the Never Bird.

* * *

Clouds the colour of old bruises rolled and curled above, blocking out the dim sun that had shone weakly through the days. If it had been days, the passing of time was measured from one sleep to the next and that sleep was filled with strange and upsetting dreams.

Emma inspected a thick briar of Dreamshade, noting the way the thorns dripped with black poison and was careful to avoid them. She had seen clusters of the thorns here and there but its appearance was haphazard and soon she started to suspect that there was reason for its odd placement around the island. It was a theory confirmed by Tinkerbell as she appeared one night on the ship, accompanied by Hook.

"The thorns naturally grew around the Fountain of Youth but now Peter makes it grow around anything he wants protected. That's why you'll never get to Wendy, her cave is infested with the stuff," the fairy explained, sifting the green pixie dust that Emma had created. Tink was looking healthier and little by little a sense of hope started to take root in her.

"Then we'll have to draw Wendy to you," Rumple said sternly, repeating the plan again and Emma had left. Being confined to the boat was safer than being on the island but she could not stand it for too long. Her son was out there and she knew that Regina was seconds away from going AWOL and Emma was considering joining her.

"We have magic, _I_ have magic. Why can't I just turn Pan into a god damned toad, grab Henry and go," she whacked at the thorns with her sword in frustration but stopped when the blade started to drip with blackness. She was the saviour, she was literally born to break a curse and save a town full of people and yet here she was helpless. Magic ran through her veins, an infinite source according to Tink but she could barely light a candle.

She wiped the sword carefully and then turned to a bush that was filled with blue berries. Pan had warned her that they were poisonous. For a smug psychopath he was oddly sincere. Emma collected them, thinking that they could be useful when someone spoke up behind her.

"I wouldn't eat them of I were you…"

Emma twisted around and her mouth fell open in surprise. "…Neal?"

"It's me," he smiled at her, taking a step forward but stopped when she lifted her sword. Smears of poison still clung to the blade.

"You're not real, you're dead," she said with a forced calm but inside she was being ripped apart, hope and denial at war. Neal shook his head.

"I survived. I ended up in the Enchanted Forest but I found my way here. It's really me Emma, I swear. Look," he lifted his shirt and Emma could see a patched up wound on his side. A bullet wound. The sword in her hand started to shake but she spoke in the same low tone, devoid of emotion.

"This could still be Pan's game."

"It could be…for all I know you might not even be Emma but I'm choosing to trust in what I believe. You're Emma Swan, we're going to save our son and I love you," he said with a simple sincerity and then lifted his arms. "You can stab me now cause the last time I said that I almost died but it's cool."

A laugh burst out of her mouth and she dropped the sword to the ground and ran to him. She wrapped her arms around him fiercely, tears in her eyes and the grief and pain she had been keeping at bay was unleashed.

"You're alive! I love you, I do love you but I can't be that, I don't know how anymore. You died and then Henry was taken and then Pan almost killed us. I feel so useless but I'm trying so hard to keep it all together. I – I think he's been playing with my dreams, making me remember awful things and god I just want all this craziness to stop. It –it's too much. I just want Henry, I just want my son back safe. I want to go _home_," she rambled, the words spilling from her and Neal held her tightly as she cried against his shoulder, giving her the time to vent until she stood drained but strangely cathartic in his arms. Cheeks wet and red from crying she pulled back and he wiped the tears away with the back of his fingers.

"Better?"

"Yeah," she sighed and cocked her head with a gentle smile. "But you know I'll deny it if you mention this to anyone."

"Mention what?" he smiled and very gently bumped the tip of her nose with his finger before pulling away. As they separated the sky overhead became so dark that they both looked upwards in unison. Neal took Emma's hand and pulled her towards the shore. The _Jolly Roger_ was docked near to the beach and a bonfire was roaring there. As Emma and Neal approached Tinkerbell rose to her feet and a beautiful smile appeared on her face.

"Baelfire?"

"Hey Tink," he said and hugged the fairy as Hook came around the fire and became very still at the sight of Neal. He was silent for a long time before he started to laugh.

"Not even death can stop you."

"Something like that. What are you doing here?" he asked, lifting his brows in surprise as Hook clasped his arm in a show of solidarity. Emma and Snow hugged briefly, her mother beaming in happiness for her.

"Oh you know, couldn't stay away," he quipped but looked at Neal sadly for a moment before he nodded towards the ship. "Your father should probably know you're alive," he drawled but then dropped a bottle of rum he was clasping to the sand as Tink began to waver on her feet.

"Tink!" Hook shouted in alarm but then pulled up short when for just an instant she grew transparent and disappeared. The gap in the fabric of Neverland was dark, a nothingness but just as Emma's eyes tried to focus on it the ex-fairy was back. She dropped to her knees and Hook was by her side at once.

"Are you all right?" Charming asked as Emma knelt beside her in worry. Tink looked up and Emma saw with deep unease that her nose was bleeding and her eyes were hollow and red rimmed. Even with the pixie dust it wasn't enough.

"What happened? You – you faded away," Neal explained and Tink nodded grimly in understanding.

"It's Peter, this place…it's dying. I – I bound my life to him a long time ago, not seeing the consequences."

"Why?" Emma asked, not understanding why anyone would do such a thing for Pan. Tink smiled sadly.

"I knew him when he was a child, a true child. He was scared and lonely and thought no one loved him. I did and I proved that to him…when he goes I go but it was just a game because we thought we'd live forever…" her gaze lost focus as she thought back but then she focused again as Snow wiped blood from her chin.

"He's weak…" Rumple said suddenly and they all looked up. He smiled at his son, who he must have seen from the ship. "I knew I'd see you again," he whispered but Neal said nothing. He focused on Tink who rested against Hook's chest.

"He is weak but don't think that's gonna save you. It's the opposite," Tink warned darkly and Emma frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"Peter likes to play games but in his way he likes to play fair. He's known that you were all coming for years, he's had centuries to think and plan. Did you really think you could step foot on this island and there would be no repercussions? If he dies, if he fails in getting Henry and you're still in this realm you'll die along with him. If he can't have the boy then none of you can."

"He's bound our lives to his," Rumple cursed softly in understanding and Tink nodded.

"Yes but like I said he tries to be fair. If you leave, if you get on the ship and go home the bond will be broken and you'll live…if he gets Henry's heart you'll survive but I don't know what he'll do if you're still here," she added in contemplation as Hook gently pulled her up to her feet. He turned her around and stared into her eyes.

"So you've known this would happen?"

"I suspected but now I know…Now is the time to rescue Henry but even if Peter is weak there are still the boys to deal with...but you have a choice," Tink said but Neal shook his head.

"None of us are leaving without Henry," Neal said and everyone nodded. "We're not going to the camp so the boys shouldn't be a problem. They captured me but Wendy set me free. She said she'd rescue Henry and that we have to meet them at Skull Rock."

"When?" Emma demanded but Neal shrugged. "Can we trust her?"

He was silent for a moment but then answered in a soft voice. "She's family." That was all he would say. Rumple gritted his teeth as they made their way back to the ship and Emma knew what he was thinking.

Wendy might rescue Henry but that doesn't change her status as a hostage if Pan stopped them before they could reach Henry. As the _Jolly Roger_ set sail Emma prayed her son would be there. Storm clouds gathered, thunder began to rumble angrily and lightning flickered and for some reason she knew that somewhere Peter Pan had just woken up.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_And he's pissed! :p_

_This chapter was very long so I'm splitting it. The next part will be up tomorrow._

_**Updating:** okay so I have to say something about this. Since The Riddle of his Being I've been getting messages about updating, some considerate and some not. I wish that I could write and update everyday but I can't, I just don't have the time. I aim to update every week, twice a week if possible, but no later than a week. Please be patient and understanding of that, which I know many of you are. Thank you! _


	7. Chapter 7

The hourglass sifted sand in a smooth constant stream but now the particles were trickling through, collecting in a huge pile in the bottom half. It had almost run its course. Henry stood before it, mesmerized and it was there Wendy found him.

"You're here," she sighed in relief as he turned. He was wet and she realised he must have swam to get across.

"I thought the Lost Boys had gotten you! My family isn't here! And I can't find the Never Bird!" he cried in desperation and Wendy smiled. She went to his side and looked up at the hourglass. For some reason it looked smaller to her.

"The Lost Boys are outside. It's okay, they answer to me now," she explained calmly when he looked stricken. Henry smiled, impressed and followed her gaze.

"It's almost run out."

"Yes. When the last grain falls magic will end and Peter will die. He said it's been here for as long as he can remember but his memory is not the most reliable…" she trailed off, looking miserably at the sand and Henry frowned at her.

"I don't understand why you're here. In the story you leave and grow up, have a family. He visits your kids and grandkids because you're the only thing he remembers."

"Maybe in another universe that's the tale but not here. My story is a very long one and as you can see we don't have time for it…" Wendy laughed quietly. "Do you know I've never read it? I couldn't make myself do it…but are you shocked that it's different?"

"No, not really. I have a book back home, a storybook about fairy tale characters and everything in it is true. It's how I knew that Storybrooke was cursed. I guess you're in there…and I guess I am too," he added with a peculiar look and Wendy felt sorry for him. It was a bizarre existence they led.

"I'm glad that we have a chance to talk Henry because there are some things I want to say." She motioned for him to follow her and they sat on some rocks with a view of the sea. The water was growing increasingly choppy. Henry stared out at the ocean hungrily.

"I hope they come soon, I want to go home."

"I know, I know you do but please just listen to me first. I won't stop you from leaving but I think it's important that you know the truth, about why you've been brought here."

"What truth?"

"About yourself. Peter told you that you own the Heart of the Truest Believer and he's twisted that fact into something that's not true. He told you that the only way to save magic was to give him your heart and the only way he could do that was if you believed in him. He can only take your heart if you offer it to him freely."

Henry listened quietly, his face set but here he started to frown. "I don't believe in him," he said and the sky outside darkened even more and lightening flickered. Wendy's heart thudded and she gripped Henry's arm.

"Then believe in me. I have spent a long time looking the other way, pretending that this was not going to happen but it is. I knew what Peter planned and I helped him because I don't want him to die, I love him…but I don't want you to be killed either. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, just know that I'm sorry and I want to tell you the truth because since you've got here you've been manipulated and mislead."

"Wait. You don't want me to be killed? He – he's gonna _kill_ me?" he grew pale and she could see a devastating hurt and betrayal in his eyes. She put her arm around his shoulders.

"If you agree to trade hearts with him you will die because Peter's heart is cursed. I suppose if you didn't take his heart you would live but I can't say for how long. Look," she said and moved over to the hourglass again. She knelt down at the base and pulled seaweed and vines away to reveal a box that she had hidden in a crag. Henry peered over her shoulder as she opened it and he drew back. Inside was a small, dying black heart.

"What's wrong with it?"

"He saved my life and as a result was cursed," she explained softly, drawing out the thimble necklace that she had hidden in the box along with the heart. Henry looked surprised as she put the chain around her neck.

"He saved your life?"

"Yes. It's complicated but he is capable of love…he was," she corrected sadly and looked at Henry's unconvinced face.

"I found you in a cage."

"It's complicated," she replied briskly and he shrugged. Wendy gently took out the heart and Henry peered at it with a look of horrified fascination, an expression that most children have when faced with the grotesque.

"Is there a cure?"

"Yes. You," Wendy said simply and Henry blinked, looking up at her.

"Me?"

"That's why I brought you here. I have a plan, a very, very simple plan really but it relies on you. Henry with your heart anything you believe can become a reality. Peter's heart was once like yours and anything he wished for became real. Neverland is his creation, he fashioned an entire realm through the power of belief. But now his heart is withering away and so is the island…" they stared down at the feebly beating organ before Henry tore his gaze away.

"I can't create an entire world."

"Henry you have no idea how powerful you are. I know that you grew up being told that the things you believed to be real were fake, that you were crazy but you knew it was real. Look at you family, look where you come from! Magic runs through your veins."

"That's my mom, both of them. I don't have magic," his shoulders slumped.

"No but you have the ability to create it. You've spent a long time believing in others, in how special they were even if they couldn't see it in themselves. It's time for you to do the same," Wendy said and a light of acceptance started to glimmer in his eyes. Wendy gripped the small thimble in her hand and inhaled sharply. It was growing hotter. "Peter is coming, this thimble is enchanted to find him." Even though his impending arrival was a hinderance she smiled in relief. He was awake, she wasn't too late.

She took Henry's hand and pulled him to a gap in the wall behind the hourglass. A ruined stairwell lead to the back of the rock and there a massive cage stood. Henry froze, mouth falling open as the Never Bird lifted her head weakly and stared down at them. A white feather floated downwards where it burned up into ash before hitting the ground.

"Is that a phoenix?! Cool!"

"Are you pure of heart? Have you ever taken a life?" Wendy asked, making him face her. Henry shook his head, shocked at her question. "I had to ask, I'm surrounded by murderous boys."

"What do I have to do?" he asked as Wendy pushed him towards the cage. In the distance she could hear crowing and knew that Peter was approaching with his own gang of boys. Just as it had been years ago in London it appeared their loyalty was now split between Peter and Wendy. At least she hoped the boys with her would stay loyal. She peered over the edge and saw her personal guard still standing below, the waves crashing around them. Their arrows were drawn and ready.

"Save his heart," she turned and offered him it but Henry shook his head.

"What?" he blinked, staring at the heart as if it would infect him.

"I've been here for a long time, thinking of ways to save him and everyone here and it all comes down to you. Peter thinks you were born to save him and I think he was right but not in the way he wants. I knew that one day Peter would be too weak to lead and that I'd have my chance and it's now. I'm risking everything on this plan but it's only possible if you break the curse over his heart."

"I - I don't know how! My mom, she's the curse breaker, she's the saviour not me!"

"Listen to me! Peter thinks that he can take your heart and carry on like normal but I was told that he would be cursed worse than ever. I don't know what exactly will happen but I don't think any of us will escape it," she thought back to the desolation of Fantasia and the lone ruler floating all alone and suppressed a shudder. "It's imperative that you don't give him your heart but you have the power to save his Henry."

"Why?" he asked simply and Wendy straightened. The boy had the heart of the Truest Believer but that did not mean the owner had to be _kind_. Peter never had been and Henry Mills was raised by Regina Mills, the Evil Queen and now it showed. Wendy smiled in the face of it.

"It's true you could let him die and take his place but are you prepared for that fate? Peter has been here for centuries, for almost five hundred years. He's forgotten how long he's been here because he's had to. Can you imagine being alone, being eleven years old and convinced that you and only you could save magic? Of course you can because you're living it. Peter was tricked, he was stuck on this island by a person who would have you stay here for an eternity if she could."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded as rain began to splash down around them. Waves crashed against the rocks and their hair whipped around in the wind that was growing stronger. Soon the waves would wash over the rock and cast them into the sea.

"The Blue Fairy. She's the reason Peter is here, she's the reason everyone was cursed and sent to Storybrooke, she's the reason your mother was raised an orphan and so much more. Do you understand? Peter was cursed but before that she was using him to produce magic, maybe even to feed off it to live as long as she has but she knew he would die and you would be his replacement. I think she wants you here forever. You think Peter is your enemy, as Regina and Rumpelstiltskin, but they're just puppets who don't know they've got strings."

Henry's eyes stared out of a pale, appalled face and he had never looked so young. "I – I don't want to be here forever! I want to go home…" he cried out and Wendy nodded, gripping his shoulders. He narrowed his eyes at her, half convinced and she could not blame him. The Blue Fairy had fooled everyone. "If what you're saying is true the Blue Fairy is back in Storybrooke. She's never done anything, she's a nun. Why would she do any of that?"

"I'm not sure but there must be a reason. All this stretches back well beyond us. She's like a spider in the centre of a web she's created."

Henry tilted his head, thoughtful. "My mom, Regina, suspected that her magic was fading."

"I imagine it is and now you know why. Please Henry, please help me. Save Peter and then you and your family can go home. Don't let history repeat itself," she begged and after a long tense pause he nodded.

"I'll try."

"Thank you. You're a very brave boy Henry, you really are. If you succeed I'll place you in there until your family arrives," she motioned to the cage as the rain started to pour down around them and the wind picked up into a gale. "The Never Bird kills anything with an impure heart but you'll be safe in there…Peter may still get to you." Even with his heart restored she could not predict what Peter would do. He was dangerous, cured or not.

"Then what?"

"Henry will you give me your heart?" she asked quietly, holding her breath and Henry tilted his head in confusion.

"Do you want to use it?"

"No, I can't even if I wanted to. I want us to trade hearts. I'll give you my heart and we'll store yours in the cage with the Never Bird. That way Peter can't get it."

"You - you's do that for me?"

"Yes," was all she would say but she meant it.

"But if he's heartless can't he get in? Or send someone else?"

"It's possible but like I said I've been planning for this day for a long time. I hope by the time he arrives here getting your heart will be pointless. Restore him to what he once was and no one has to die," she urged and closed his hands gently around the black heart. "If you don't we're doomed."

Henry worried at his lip, staring between her and the heart in his hands and then closed his eyes. Wendy stepped back, lacing her fingers together and for the first time in a century prayed, bringing her clasped hands up to her lips. The boy, his brown hair plastered to his head, concentrated hard until his face relaxed and a half smile played over his lips as belief and his unwavering heart took over. Neverland was made for and by a child but that child was long gone and in his increasing withdrawal it slumbered. Now it knew the touch of a new playmate and welcomed it.

Wendy inhaled a breath and held it.

A brilliant burst of golden light erupted out from the heart in Henry's hands and exploded outwards like a star going super nova. Wendy dropped to the ground, shielding her eyes as the ripple of light expanded out from Skull Rock and through the entire island. Near to the shore, in the shadows of the jungle, Peter swayed against Felix and fell to his knees.

"Did it work?!"

Wendy jumped up with a smile but a doubt growing in her heart. She had envisioned the clouds burning away and the island arced by blue skies but the clouds rolled just as darkly overhead and the rain continued to pour. She moved to Henry and peered down at his cupped hands. The blackened, rotting heart was now gone and in its place was a heart that pulsed with a fiery red light. In the gloom it looked like Henry had a small sun glowing in his fist. Feeling weak with relief and triumph Wendy was about to scream in happiness when she realised what was making Henry frown.

"Is – is it meant to look like that?"

"No, no it's not," she whispered sadly. Though Peter's heart now shone like sunlight in the centre was a tiny speck of darkness. "I suppose not even magic can remove a sin."

"I'm sorry," Henry whispered as Wendy took Peter's heart back. She stared at him in surprise and laughed.

"Don't be! You did it! As much as it was possible to. I didn't even know if it would work and I had so much riding on it but I believed," she said and felt a great weight lifting off her as the _Jolly Roger_ suddenly sailed into view. The Lost Boys below aimed at the ship but did not fire, waiting for Wendy's word. Henry waved at the ship is frantic joy before turning to Wendy.

"Did I do it? Did I save magic?" he stared around the rock in panic as the island started to tremor and Wendy looked at the Never Bird in confusion.

"I don't understand. I thought saving Peter would restore the island too. It should be fine," she said weakly as the Never Bird stood feebly up on her perch. A great cascade of feathers floated to the ground and combusted into flames.

"Henry!" a voice bellowed and Wendy turned to see Peter standing on the shore. He was leaning on Felix but she thought he looked healthier. Or maybe that was what she wanted to see.

"Peter! He did it! He saved your heart!" she lifted it into the air where it shone like a star and in a blink he was standing before her. He swayed on his feet, arms thrown out for balance as if the feat had cost him something. The sky was now a brownish black, like drying blood. Henry backed up against the cage as the Never Bird stirred, making a strange sound that made the hair rise on Wendy's arms.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's _shining_ Peter! Look," she offered it to him and after a pause he took it tentatively. For a fleeting moment hope shone in his eyes but then he saw the speck of corruption at the centre and his face settled into a passive mask.

"It's still cursed."

"I know but if you come back to London it will be kept at bay like it could have been years ago! You won't be cured but it won't spread any further!" she urged him but he gazed at her through hooded dead eyes. He lifted his hand and his heart rolled off his fingertips to the ground like it was no more than spoiled fruit.

"What use is it to me when his pure heart is right there?" he asked as Wendy quickly snatched up his discarded heart and cradled it to her chest. Peter looked upwards as thunder boomed and lightening flashed.

"Peter please! Your arrogance will be your undoing!"

He looked down with a smile. "This is what you've been planning? I thought you'd try to stop me even if it meant the end of Neverland but I see your true intentions now. Your attempt was admirable but in the end futile. Look around you bird, has it made any difference? Maybe after all this time my heart had nothing to do with it. It's a lost cause but his is not," he moved towards Henry but Wendy stepped in front of him, shielding the younger boy.

"You know you can't take it from him without his permission."

"Oh I know, so I'll just have to do something to hurry up that agreement," he said cheerfully and Wendy grew cold at the malice in his eyes. Usually they danced with joy but now the games were over. She backed away until Henry was pushed against the cage door.

"Peter, what's _wrong_ with you?! All I've ever dreamed of was undoing the curse and then we could change this place for the better! If you take his heart you'll be beyond saving, I know it," she offered her hand to him, gazing at him with a jittery tenderness. "Go, come away with me."

"Go? I'm so close to winning but my time is running out! The sand in the hourglass is still falling, I can _feel_ it. I'm sorry, I know you meant well, but I've waited too long for this to give up now. Get out of my way."

"Henry get in the cage! Now!" Wendy yelled and Henry did not need to be told twice. He wrenched the gate open and the great fire bird started to flap its wings, leaving a trail of flames in her wake. Wendy was about to follow him in when a hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her around.

"Did it ever occur to you dearie that maybe this playground wasn't meant to be saved?" The Dark One asked in a cheerful tone and then plunged his hand into her chest and ripped out her heart.

* * *

**a.n:**

_Rumple don't play around..._

_So that's Wendy's plan. It's pretty obvious and simple really but I didn't want to over complicate it. Having said that don't underestimate Wendy, she's crafty ;)_

_Thanks so much for the supportive feedback about updating, it takes a pressure off. More to come soon!_


	8. Chapter 8

Fresh water pearls hung around her neck in hundreds of strands, modestly covering her chest while others rested around her hips. The royal mermaids of Neverland were heavily bejewelled. She had worn them with comfortable ease the first time he had seen her and she had confided she would have worn nothing but now that person was gone.

"What if I get there too late?" Tiger Lily asked as she slipped a pearl encrusted comb into her hair, a comb that Peter had once gifted to Wendy. John rolled his trousers up and offered his hand to her with a smile.

"You won't, the aunties were very clear. Shall we?" he took her hand and they walked down the beach to the water as the seers and Michael stood back to watch. Lily had worked hard to overcome her fear with John's help but as the surf washed over her feet she gripped his hand tightly.

"Do you like the sea?" she asked distractedly and he snorted very softly before gazing out at the Atlantic, lost in dark thoughts.

"I should have died at sea, as a solider, so I suppose it holds a fear…but I always wanted to sail," he added to lighten the morbid conversation. Lily smiled, gazing at him with a simple but intense affection.

"The navy?"

"Actually as a boy I wanted to be a pirate! We would make up stories in the nursery, act them out. I was fearsome Red Handed Jack and Wendy had stolen aboard to rescue her poor baby Michael. Then she'd best me in a duel," he finished with a wistful smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He inhaled, clearing his throat. "Long time ago now."

"I will bring Wendy back here and then you can show me that beach in France."

"Why?" he felt a strange queasy feeling but she had hit something. He had thought about visiting that beach he was meant to die on for years but pushed the strange want away.

"To face your fear as I have and to show it that you're alive. The sea remembers things, even things that didn't happen," she added oddly and then exhaled a breathy prayer to the goddess Ursula. John pulled her against him, not caring who saw, and kissed her hard.

"I'll be here waiting for you when you get back," he whispered, pulling away, his forehead against hers and she smiled. "Do you remember the way?"

"I don't have to remember," she uttered as John stepped back. Tiger Lily looked at the grey box in her hands, inhaled another deep breath and walked into the sea. Moving back to his brother John watched the woman he loved diving into the water and then disappear with a flick of her tail.

"What will the box do?" Michael asked as they left the beach, John trailing behind. "If it _is_ Pandora's Box surely opening it would be a terrible thing?"

Lucy smiled. "That possibility is long past, all the evils are here," she motioned around them before letting her hands fall. "But you know the one things that's still in there?"

"Hope," Michael answered and then grew silent in contemplation. As they reached the main street a gaggle of nuns rounded a corner and at the front was the Blue Fairy. The nuns were supporting her, appearing to keep her up right and as Michael grew closer he could see that her nose was bleeding.

The Blue Fairy's eyes caught sight of him and John and she smiled weakly. "Hello again. I – I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time," she uttered weakly before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. The nuns gasped and cried out in worry, placing her gently on the ground as the Darling brothers gingerly approached. Even a dying animal could be dangerous.

"What's wrong with her?" John asked and the crouching nuns looked up, clearly stressed.

"We – we don't know, she's been weak but it's recently got worse. We – we don't know what to do," one of the fairy-nuns said and then screamed in fright as the Blue Fairy faded away for a second, the sidewalk clearly visible through her body before she appeared again. John and Michael crouched down, fascinated despite themselves as Blue opened her eyes.

"It – it's happening. You – you need to get the Hatter," she whispered and Michael had to lean close to hear her.

"And why would we do anything for you?" John asked coldly and she grinned, her teeth clenched.

"You – you have every reason to distrust me, I know. I'm not asking you to help me but your sister. Peter is dying…Neverland is falling…and the mermaid won't make it back here," she explained and the effort drained the last of her strength away as she fainted. Michael stood up sharply and stared grimly at John as the nuns picked up their fallen leader and hurried her back to the convent.

"She could be tricking us and even if she's not Jefferson will never help us again," Michael said as John began running towards the Mad Hatter's house atop the hill.

"Then we'll make him! Come on!"

* * *

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Neal bellowed as Gold and Wendy blinked away from Skull Rock and appeared on the deck of the _Jolly Roger_. Wendy doubled over, clutching at her chest and gasping but as she straightened she glared at Gold. Seeing the intense anger on the girl's face was so out of place and uncanny that Emma steeled the shock and empathy she had felt and ran to the side of the ship. Henry was inside the bird cage and as she watched boys with arrows and knifes climbed up the rock and ringed around the cliff edge. The tips of their arrows dripped black.

"Stand aside Pan, let Henry go or I'll squeeze her heart into ash," Gold told him with calm authority and to show that he was serious he squeezed Wendy's heart. She doubled over again and a shriek of pain rent the air. Pan's eyes flashed in rage, his shoulders hunched and his fists clenched convulsively but he did not move. Emma staggered as the ship heaved up and down amongst the waves, the sails above whipping back and forth in the gale. She gripped the banister and shouted over the wind.

"Henry! We're here! Everything will be okay!"

"Papa! You can't do this!" Neal yelled into his father's face, trying to reach Wendy but Gold gently but firmly pushed him back.

"Bae I'm helping to get your son back, my grandson!"

"Not like this!" he yelled as Wendy, panting for breath, straightened and smiled weakly at him.

"It's all right Bae, I promise. Peter won't let me die," she whispered and lifted her eyes to Pan. He was standing stock still, his muscles visible taut with tension but his eyes were oddly void now, a hollowness that made Emma shiver. Those green eyes flicked from Gold to Wendy.

"…It won't work Rumple," Pan said finally, his voice quiet but it carried over the storm. The gentle smile on Wendy's face dimmed. "She means nothing to me, not compared to the thing I have sought after for so long. I'm sorry Wendy," he added and to Emma's ears it was oddly heartfelt. She looked back at Wendy, whose unruly blonde hair was flying wildly about in the air and it was then Emma believed that the girl was older than she appeared. Pan's eyes had looked devoid of emotion but with a hollow sort of hunger in them but the girl's eyes were truly terrible, like a waste land. She was devastated. Wendy started to smile until a tittering laugh bubbled up from her chest and Emma looked away.

"History repeats and repeats doesn't it? I understand now," she said with a sigh but Gold, growing bored with the apparent betrayal being played out, lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. Wendy disappeared from the deck of the ship and a moment later she was balanced on a wooden plank over the raging sea.

"She'll walk and if Henry is not on this ship by the time she reaches the end Miss Darling will drown. Come on Pan, I remember how much you like games," Gold said with a sharp grin and Peter's eyes snapped to him. A terrible icy cruelty filled them and the corner of his lips twitched.

"I know what this is. You could take Henry, you could _try_ but you have to grandstand, because Neverland isn't the source of your magic. You have no real power here so you think you can use _feelings_ against me? _Me_? I know it was a long time ago but surely you remember I _don't have any_. You're a coward, you always have been and always will be," he scoffed but Emma could tell there was a latent boiling hot rage inside him. He _did_ care for Wendy. She knew better than anyone how it could be hidden.

"You're done Peter, you're finished," Gold shot back and the smirk on Pan's face deepened.

"Am I?" he cocked his head and his eyes sought out Wendy. It was a heavy look, an unspoken communication that finished with the ageless boy nodding his head encouragingly. Emma turned to look at Wendy, whose tears had dried, and saw she was smirking softly behind Gold's back and Emma knew in that instant that they had all been played.

"You should be more careful Mr Gold," Wendy offered with guileless sentiment and Gold turned to her with a sneer.

"Pan is the one who should be careful. Our lives are tied to his, one wrong move and he's dead. If he brings us down with him then so be it, Henry will be free. He's not dealing with a boy anymore," he glared at Peter as Wendy cocked her head.

"Who said anything about Peter?" she replied sweetly and then viciously squeezed Peter's heart in her hand. Everyone on the deck screamed in pain and fell to their knees, everyone but Wendy. Peter collapsed with a grin on his face and despite the pain he lifted a hand to the Lost Boys.

"Now!"

They fired their arrows, taking the adults by surprise. Gold caught the shaft before it could hit him but Emma gasped as her neck was grazed. She touched her skin and her fingers came away black and bloody. Panic swept through her veins as her body suddenly became completely still. She could not move an inch. She was powerless.

* * *

Wendy wavered on the plank, trying to keep balance but the sea was heaving angrily. Despite his controlled stance she knew Peter was incredibly angry. She tried to step back but it was like wading through treacle. Despite their deception and tricks the Dark One was still in action and he was keeping her on the plank.

"Squid ink, immobilises anything magical," Peter explained as he got back onto his feet. Snow, Charming, Hook and Neal rushed forward but stopped as the Lost Boys pointed their arrows at them. "Stay where you are unless you want to die slowly. _Those_ arrow tips are coated with Dreamshade." Peter moved to the edge of the rock as the storm raged on, never abating but he grinned in the face of it. He pouted at Gold.

"Rumple you're pathetic, all this because I wouldn't take you away from the poor, neglected life you had as a child. Did you know that Bae?" he directed at Neal who was straining to get to Emma. "James was the first Lost Boy," he nodded to Hook who was back beside Tink. "But he wasn't truly the first. Wee Rumple here visited this place in his dreams. My first friend…" he trailed off, looking nostalgic but blinked as Wendy tumbled on the plank but remained upright. In her hands Pan's heart was beating like a drum.

"You were never my _friend_! I was too young to know it then but you were using me. You knew that my family would produce the Heart of the Trust Believer. You've been stalking my descendants throughout their entire life, guiding them to this end but now your interference is at an end. You better say your goodbyes now because she's almost at the end."

"That's not true," Wendy said firmly, her white night gown billowing in the wind and faced Gold with her chin held high, cradling the heart to her chest as waves crashed around her. "I know Peter has kept an eye on your family for a long time but do you honestly believe he's the root of all this?"

"Dearie you're not exactly in a position to speculate, take it from someone a tad older," he said and threw her heart into the air and caught it again. Wendy swallowed as a strange nausea hit her. "You side with him but he cares nothing for you. You could fall any second but look at him," Gold motioned in disgust at Peter who was approaching Henry in the cage as the Never Bird rose into the air in a fiery wake. Flames flickered around Henry but none touched him. Wendy smiled weakly, trying to ignore his words.

"You think if you get Henry back all this will be over? You're being duped and moved like pieces on a board and you don't even know it!" she cried out in exasperation but none listened to her. The Never Bird started to sing, a beautiful lament that filled the air and every heart ached with a sadness they couldn't place. It was a song of death.

"Henry! You need to get out of that cage!" Neal yelled and Henry nodded but didn't move. His eyes were fixed on Peter, who wavered before him like a viper.

"If you come any closer I'll set the bird free!" he shouted and Peter laughed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Henry. She's in that thing for a reason," he looked up at the burning phoenix and grimaced. "She doesn't look to good does she? I wouldn't want to be in there when she goes Henry. Just come out, give me your heart and you can go home."

"Don't give him anything Henry…but don't release the bird," Gold added and he looked at the dying firebird warily before turning to Wendy with an apologetic smile. "Sorry dearie but we don't have time for games anymore," he said and flicked his fingers and she was dragged along to the edge of the plank as a huge booming noise sounded.

"Peter!" she screamed and then all words left her as the Spire Islands cracked and toppled into the sea along the east coast. Some of the spindle like islands rose hundreds of feet into the air and as they plummeted into the water a shock wave rose and raced towards the ship.

"Neverland is sinking! We have to leave!" Felix yelled, grabbing Peter's arm but he was flung off.

"Time's up Pan! If you don't let the boy go we're all going to die, including the girl!" Gold yelled and Peter stared desperately at Wendy as she tried to keep upright.

"I'll save you, I promise," he told her firmly but there was a crack in his voice, a crack in his mind now. "I'll save everyone but there's only one way! You haven't won yet!" Peter shouted madly at Gold and turned back to Henry who was standing before the open cage door.

Wendy had faced death many times before but never had she been so lucid, felt so _alive_. Her desire to live, to escape and be safe overwhelmed any plan or hope she might have had before. She stared down at Peter's heart in her trembling hands as she was pushed onto her toes and hung suspended over the sea.

"Stop! Everyone just stop! I – I'll give you my heart!" Henry cried out and for a moment the wind eased, the rain stopped and the rolling waves soaking her froze. In his cupped hands was a heart glimmering like gold and at the sight of it Peter sighed audibly and smiled. He appeared close to tears but it was a gaze aglow with greed.

"You'll give it to me freely?"

"Yes," Henry said and stepped out from the cage.

"Henry no!" Neal yelled and ran forward but it was too late. The Heart of the Truest Believer was finally in Peter's long awaited grasp but as it touched his skin the golden light radiating from the heart dimmed immediately to a bright but ordinary red. Peter blinked and looked up at Henry's triumphant face that was bathed in a reddish pink light.

"Is this a trick?" he asked angrily but his gaze was one of confused disbelief. Henry smiled.

"No trick. I gave you my heart willingly but _I don't believe in you_. Now neither of us have the Heart of the Truest Believer," he replied, clearly pleased with himself but his smile vanished as Peter's eyes grew blank but then as the truth of the situation hit him his face contorted into a demonic snarl and he squeezed Henry's heart until the boy dropped to his knees.

"Peter!" Felix yelled, trying to stop him but Peter was beyond reason now. "We're all going to die! The cage is disappearing! What about us!? What about Wendy!?"

"…What?" Peter muttered, blinking and like waking from a nightmare into another he let the abused heart fall and Felix pulled him upright as Peter's shadow appeared above them. The shadow and body joined once more as the rock they stood on started to crumble. The cage holding the phoenix melted away as the reality that had created it started to dissolve. The firebird rose into the air with a great cry of freedom before flying over the island, the treetops catching fire in its flight and soon the entire jungle was on fire.

Wendy watched in horror as the island burned and sank and she knew as Peter started to flicker in and out of existence that the last grain of sand was falling through the hourglass. Peter screamed in rage and fear and his heart in her hands fluttered weakly. Not thinking about it Wendy slammed his heart into her chest before she lost balance, twisting in the air for something to grab hold of but there was nothing. She fell to a cry of anguish, of fury and loss before she hit the water. As the sky began to burn she struggled to swim upwards but as she kicked something grabbed her ankle and pulled her down. She did not resurface.

* * *

As Wendy hit the water an object shot out from the sea and cluttered onto the deck of the ship by Gold's foot. Hook, knowing that there was no time left, produced a bean he had kept in case of emergency and flung it out to sea where a portal opened.

"WE HAVE TO GO! GET THE BOY!" he roared as Gold picked up Pandora's Box and Neal threw out his arms as Henry staggered to the cliff edge and with one final push he jumped from the disintegrating rock onto the deck of the ship. Neal gathered Henry up in his arms as the boy weakly pushed his now normal heart back into his chest and collapsed. Trees burned and smoke filled the air as The Lost Boys threw their weapons down and ran to the edge of the rock and began to plead.

"Don't leave us here to die! Please!" they screamed, ignoring Peter who now appeared catatonic beside Felix. Gold titled his head as the ship began to turn and then looked down at the box in his hands. When he looked back up it was with a terrible smile.

"Your wish is my command," he waved his hand over the box and blood red smoke poured out from inside and enveloped the boys before being sucked back in. Peter and the Lost Boys were gone.

"Get us out of here now!" Emma yelled. She was still immobile but her eyes were fixed on the skies that were pulsing with hellish light. The very clouds appeared on fire and the Never Bird's song was growing to a high pitched wail that made their ears bleed.

When a phoenix dies it doesn't simply consume itself but burns up everything around it. The cage was not just its prison but also there for the island's safety. Neverland was never meant to be inhabited because it was a phoenix's birth place and so it's grave site and now its cycle was ending. As the _Jolly Roger_ left Neverland for the final time the firebird exploded with the awful force and might of a nuclear bomb and took the island with her until all that was left was ash.

But soon the cycle would begin again as it always had and always would.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_Sorry for the wait but I hope you liked this chapter. Neverland is ash, Wendy is gone and Peter and the Lost Boys are trapped but it's not the end...the next chapter will start the second story arc of this fic._

_I'll update as soon as I can! Thanks guys!_


	9. Chapter 9

The sea boiled and great fissures cracked through the ocean floor, toppling the mighty palace and temples that had stood for hundreds of years under the waves. The mermaids fled, slipping through the cracks into the next realm but a few, too stubborn or too old, remained and perished in the destruction of Neverland.

Tiger Lily wanted to wail and mourn but she had no time, she was surrounded by mayhem and death. She surfaced and watched the island burn as Wendy Darling tumbled from the plank and fell into the sea. She threw Pandora's Box towards the ship, not caring if it reached it, and dived under the waves. She had not swam for so long and a seed of utter fear still sat in her heart but she kicked her tail powerfully, fighting against the current and grabbed Wendy's ankle. Her human friend kicked at her in terror but froze as she saw who it was and a smile flashed across her face before Wendy was suddenly ripped away.

A magic bean was thrown into the water and a portal spun furiously, sucking everything into it. Heart hammering wildly Tiger Lily swam to reach Wendy and as they were almost sucked into the portal Wendy's fingers wrapped around her wrists before they were blasted into another realm. The _Jolly Roger_ spiralled into the portal and vanished, narrowly avoiding the destruction of Neverland.

* * *

_I'm alive._

The thought was faint and dethatched, like someone else was saying it to her from another room, another universe. Wendy inhaled and began to cough violently and she rolled onto her side and vomited water until her throat was raw and her muscles sore. She became aware that a hand was rubbing her back gently and she turned.

"It – it _is_ you," she croaked as Tiger Lily smiled faintly. They were both wet but Wendy could see tears clearly spilling from her eyes.

"It's gone, I can't feel it anymore," she whispered gutturally and Wendy felt a hollow blow to her stomach. Fighting back tears she embraced her old friend. They sat with their arms wrapped around each other, saying nothing. In the pit of her stomach a writhing worry, a terrible sickness was rising inside her and it was all she could do not to break apart.

_Peter, oh god…_

She had seen trees catch fire, the Never Bird finally released and all those half promises and daydreams of freeing the bird made her feel queasy. She had been playing with things that she hadn't had the faintest idea about and now Peter…Wendy pulled back, wiping tears away and looked at her rescuer. Lily was just as she remembered her, dressed in countless pearls but hanging around her neck were a pair of familiar spectacles. Tiger Lily looked up from the beach they sat on in confusion.

"Where are we?"

"You don't know?"

"I was trying to get us back to Storybrooke. I think we got blown off course…" she got to her feet, helping Wendy up. She felt boneless and she shivered every so often. She was in shock but she was alive. Wherever they were it wasn't Storybrooke and it clearly wasn't Neverland. Large billowy clouds, coloured like opalescent pearls rolled over head and they were bathed in a warm summer light. The water before them was as still as glass and she could see something white reflected in it. Wendy turned and gasped.

"That's impossible," she muttered and Tiger Lily turned and looked up. Before them was a massive ivory tower and from this distance Wendy could see that the top opened up like petals on a lotus flower.

"What is it? Where are we?"

"Fantasia…but it can't be. I've been here before but it was completely destroyed, it was just –"

"_Nothingness_?" a sweet voice asked and they turned to find a young girl standing behind them. At first glance Wendy thought she was familiar but she could not say why. She looked to be a child of ten or so, dressed in white lace and silk. She appeared like a china doll, small and fragile but her eyes were uncanny, a gold that were sharp and knowing. She was no child.

"Are you the Empress?" Wendy asked, suddenly feeling very small. She had thought herself a queen of a cage but standing before the Childlike Empress she had never felt so foolish. It had been a game, a terrible dangerous game.

"Yes. You've been here before." It wasn't a question.

"I have but – but this world, there was nothing left. Just the tower and you, I suppose. I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling deeply confused as the girl smiled softly.

"Don't apologise. I know what will befall Fantasia because it will always befall Fantasia. I made sure of it."

Tiger Lily frowned. She was in great pain and growing irritated by the riddles. However as a school librarian back in Storybrooke she had read the Never Ending Story and she tried to remember.

"This realm disappears and then comes back until the boy is ready to save it, until he believes in himself," she explained and Wendy stared at her in surprise. Tiger Lily shrugged. The Empress smiled happily.

"The Eternal Return. Time is a wheel, there are no real endings or beginnings. I knew that the boy would not be able to save us in time so I took matters into my own hands until he was ready. There is a man here who writes the Never Ending Story, over and over again. The end comes and we just go back to the start. So you see, not all hope is lost," she finished, staring at Wendy significantly but like Tiger Lily she was tired and stunned.

"I don't understand. Why are we here?"

"Because you always come here and will again. Don't fret, Neverland touches this realm, we sit shoulder to shoulder. Like here that realm is powered by belief and hopes of humans. As long as people believe we never really die. Who can kill a story?"

Wendy shuddered, her mind going oddly blank and then filling with noise. "I'm not a story, I'm a real person."

"Of course," she smiled again and while Wendy could not think who she reminded her of Tiger Lily realised. The Empress held out her small hand and sat on her palm were two shining grains of sand.

Wendy narrowed her eyes, trying not to give into hope. "You – you think Neverland can come back?"

"Yes…but maybe the right question is should it?" she whispered, looking grave and Wendy swallowed with difficulty. "These are wishes, my gift to you," she explained and the wishes glinted. Wendy hesitated.

"Magic comes with a price."

"Yes, that's true of all realms," she said as Tiger Lily picked up the wish very carefully and Wendy followed after a pause. The wish pulsed in her palm, warm and comforting. She looked up and around, taking in the realm and knew in her heart that this was Neverland done right. Wendy gazed on the Empress thoughtfully.

"How do we get back home?"

The Childlike Empress lifted a hand and Wendy turned to see a vortex spinning behind them, growing bigger. Wendy turned back, a sudden fear hitting her.

"Is Peter alive?"

"Does your heart beat?" she asked simply and Wendy gasped, clutching at her chest. She had forgotten. _He was alive_.

"Goodbye and thank you" she said and moved to the portal. Through it she should see an unfamiliar bedroom.

"Remember, be careful what you wish for," the Empress warned and she looked so desperately sad that Wendy almost dropped the wish but she tighten her fist. Peter was alive but he may not be out of danger. She needed all the help she could get. As she was about to step through she turned, curiosity eating at her.

"Is time really a wheel? Have – have we done all this before? Peter always said you and this place was a warning, something that could happen to him and Neverland. I think your fate is terrible," she said and the Empress frowned delicately. Doubt gnawed at her and on its heels a horrible dread. Was her life, her fate destined to repeat? Was her agency always so controlled no matter the choices she made?

The Childlike Empress smiled, saying nothing. It was an all knowing smile and Wendy thought it smug and suddenly she realised who the girl reminded her of. The Blue Fairy. The heart in Wendy's chest, pure but for a bloom of darkness, pulsed oddly and filled her with a prickly rage. Her hand shot out like a snake and wrapped around the girl's throat and she was rewarded with a look of utter astonishment. But that feeling was drowned under a sudden and intense guilt and Wendy snatched her hand back, mumbling apologies before she turned on her heel and raced for the portal. As she fell through it a voice, just as sweet and kind, echoed around her.

_All this has happened before and it will all happen again._

* * *

"Hurry papa! The ship is back!" the girl yelled excitedly as she ran passed Michael and John. On a slopping road that lead up to the hatter's house the brothers stopped as Jefferson chased after his daughter. The smile on his face fell immediately at the sight of them and Michael steeled himself for attack, poised and ready.

"I told you not to come near me again!" he warned in a low voice, eyes wide and roving like a spooked rabbit.

"I know but we really need your help! Please!" he begged but Jefferson ran passed them, going after his daughter who was waiting at the end of the road. Grumbling the brothers chased after him until John pointed towards the sea through the trees. A ship was silhouetted against the sun, its sails billowing. It was heading for the harbour.

"They're back," Michael said and ran faster. At the harbour the inhabitants of Storybrooke gathered, watching the _Jolly Roger_ cast anchor and dock. As Henry Mills appeared with his family a cry of celebration shattered the air and the boy grinned, Regina hugging him to her side as Emma ruffled his hair. It was a warm and heartfelt welcome and it was clear that everyone getting off the ship were deeply grateful and relieved to be back.

Michael watched the passengers step off hungrily as John kept his eyes fixed on the sea, searching for any movement but none came. Wendy and Tiger Lily were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are they? We need Jefferson's hat," John said through clenched teeth and he nodded. Jefferson was standing by his daughter who was grinning from ear to ear, talking to her friends. As Henry got off the ship Grace and his other friends ran to him but stepped back a little when they noticed how tired he was. As Mr Gold moved forward to address the crowd Grace went back to her father, who placed his hands on her shoulders.

"The danger is gone," Gold said to those gathered, smiling at Belle who was at his side. "Henry is back and those who took him will not trouble us again. Pan and his followers have been defeated!" he proclaimed and held up Pandora's Box.

"Peter and the Lost Boys are trapped in there?" Michael whispered in disbelief as John blinked in shock and then laughed suddenly.

"The aunts are the sneakiest women alive. He's gone…Michael, we're free," he said and Michael felt a tingle of elation grow in him but it faded as Neal walked up to them. He did not recognise them but they knew him, had shadowed his life as they had Emma Swan's.

"Baelfire," Michael called out and Neal stopped, frowning at them before his eyes widened suddenly.

"No way. Is it really you guys? You're not even the right age," he said in confusion but hugged each of them in turn.

"It's a long story," John quipped but then looked at Neal desperately. "Where is Wendy?"

Neal lowered his head. "I don't know, she fell into the water. Neverland, it's completely destroyed, we just got away in time. But she's alive," he added fiercely as Michael and John slumped.

"How can you be sure?" Michael asked as Emma came to them.

"Because I have her heart," Neal said and from a bag he pulled out a bright and healthy heart that glowed magically with every pulse. "My father took it from her," Neal explained in disgust as the brothers gasped in horror, even as hope swelled up in them.

"What the hell!" Michael growled as John took the heart from Neal carefully. Michael glared at Gold and would have confronted him but he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to Emma Swan.

"I wouldn't. You're Wendy's brothers?" she narrowed her eyes at them and Michael shifted a little. "How come I get the feeling I've seen you both before?"

"We may have kept an eye on you from time to time," John admitted, looking equally as shifty. He put Wendy's heart very gently back into Neal's bag but as Jefferson started to leave the pier he dodged in front of his path, palms up in supplication. Jefferson clenched his jaw, pushing Grace behind him and Emma watched in shock before Neal laughed suddenly.

"You finally got back to your daughter?" he asked Jefferson who looked at Neal in confusion before recognition entered his eyes.

"Bae? You grew up!"

"You didn't," he smiled and hugged Jefferson warmly. Emma looked between them, deeply bewildered.

"What's going on?"

"I worked with Jeff as a kid, in Wonderland," Neal explained. "I was the cleaner, he was the hatter. This was after I left Neverland."

"Right," Emma deadpanned and focused on Jefferson, who despite the surprise meeting was still looking at the Darling brothers warily. Michael thought Emma was looking at the Hatter with clear distaste and Jefferson was looking at anything but Miss Swan.

"Listen I know you have every reason to distrust us," Michael began but Jefferson cut him off.

"Because I helped you I lost my wife! Pan made sure of it," Jefferson hissed angrily through his teeth and Grace tugged on his arm, confused and upset but he ignored her. "I want nothing to do with him ever again."

"Neither do we!" John yelled in agreement. "You heard Gold, he's trapped inside that thing and he's not coming out again. All we ask is the use of your hat to rescue our sister and Tiger Lily," he begged and a silence fell around them. The sails of the _Jolly Roger_, that on closer inspection were ripped and singed, flapped lazily in the breeze. Grace was the first to speak up, her voice small and shy.

"Papa, if you can help them you should. Tiger Lily, that's Miss Tallulah, she's the librarian at my school. I know her, she's really sweet. You have to help," she looked up with innocent conviction at her father. Did she know how damaged her father was? Michael thought she did but she also saw his capacity for greatness.

"Gracie, I can't help them, even if I wanted to. My hat was destroyed and I don't have another," he explained gently and Emma scoffed loudly.

"I seem to recall a dozen or more hats in your house?" she said frostily and Jefferson finally looked at her, looking incredibly guilty. Michael wondered what on earth had happened between them. Whatever it was it clearly wasn't good.

"Those hats weren't made with magic, _by_ magic. I don't have a hat like that anymore," he whispered and Emma's mouth thinned into a strange smile as she moved closer to Jefferson. Everyone gathered watched on in confusion, noting the charged animosity and guilt playing out. The very air seemed to crackle with tension.

"I've just spent god knows how long on some crazy island with a bunch of boys who wanted to murder my son and I couldn't do anything. I've been thrown into one insane situation after the other and I'm tired. The only reason my son is here is because of Wendy. You're gonna stop whining and you're gonna save her because it's the least you owe me," she finished wilfully and Jefferson stared into her eyes. Before he could do nothing but look away now he looked trapped. Finally he smiled.

"How?"

"I have magic, like you always said and I made a hat. Can you use that?" Emma asked as Jefferson blinked in surprise.

"You kept it?"

"It took me hours to make it, of course I did," she said and walked towards the town, Jefferson and Grace close behind. The others gathered looked at each other in perplexion as Hook and Tinkerbell walked over to them. The fairy was pressed against the pirate's side, looking dazed.

"The bond is broken," she whispered to Michael and he blinked, realising she was right. Since he had drank from the fountain of youth there had always been a pull, a tug that connected him to the island no matter where he was. Now it was gone. Leaving Hook and Tink to stare at his damaged ship the Darling brothers chased after Emma and Jefferson.

Gold, watching the sun sink with Belle, threw Pandora's Box into the air once before he waved his hand and the box vanished.

* * *

The magic hat spun in the centre of Emma's room, making the curtains flutter. After many false starts, grumbles and disagreements that almost became fully fledged fights Emma and Jefferson managed to get the hat working together.

"Why would they be in Fantasia?" John asked, watching the portal spin anxiously.

"They're right next to each other, like twin realms," Jefferson explained but did not explain further as a woman with long dark hair and dressed in nothing but white pearls fell through the portal into John's arms. He gathered her up and kissed her face repeatedly. Tiger Lily took one look at him and burst into tears.

"It was awful! It's gone!" she cried out and Emma watched as Wendy appeared and ran to her brothers, who embraced her. The portal grew smaller and finally disappeared but Emma saw a little girl through it smiling before the image faded. Wendy, red eyed and crying, stared at Emma over Michael's shoulder and smiled weakly before Neal moved over to hug her too.

"I'm sorry I had to hurt you," Wendy said, gulping as she spoke. "But no one uses me as leverage. I didn't foresee my heart being taken and used against me."

"I have it," Neal answered quickly and drew back. He pulled her heart out of his bag. Wendy stared, fingers poised over it but then she drew her hand away.

"Peter is alive," she said assuredly, eyes now dry. Emma, Michael, John and Tiger Lily drew closer.

"Gold trapped him and the other boys in a box," Emma explained and Neal nodded.

"It's probably in his vault now. I feel bad for the boys but we're safer with Pan gone. You know that, right?" he asked softly, as if fearing the answer and Wendy's brothers stared at her with the same expression. Wendy said nothing, just looked at her heart until Michael touched her arm gently and she looked up.

"It's over Wendy, we're free to live our lives as we wish. I know there's no forgetting the past, not anymore, but you can move on. You've just got back, take some time to think about what you want to do. You have that choice now," he stared at his sister with a simple but abiding affection and Emma was secretly touched.

Wendy's eyes flickered at the last words and then she smiled. It was cold. "Yes, I do have that choice. We'll stay in Storybrooke until the time is right," she smiled happily and hugged her brothers. Emma stepped back, moving to Jefferson and watched the Darling family thoughtfully before she left to be with Henry. A question plagued her.

_Until the time is right for what? _

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_So this part of the story will be slower, more introspective than before but there's still drama around the corner. Thanks for reading!_


	10. Chapter 10

Morning light filtered through the dream catcher hanging from the window, casting the room in soft and shifting geometric patterns. He remembered the first time he had seen one as a teenager, a gift from the aunties to ward off anyone spying on his dreams. Anyone who came into contact with Pan, who were lucky enough to escape and knew the extent of his influence acquired one. It was how they all barred him and anyone else from accessing their dreams but John supposed there was no use for that now.

He traced the shadow that webbed over her bare back gently, not wanting to wake her but Tiger Lily turned and pressed herself more firmly against his side. He was not a monk by any stretch of the imagination but he had lead an ascetic life, one filled with restrictions and abstinence because he knew of no other way to be. Now that life, that purpose was over and he found himself feeling strangely bereft, like a great stone had been lifted and he could admit to feeling giddy at the freedom. He knew that independence would be lacking if Lily was not lying beside him. There was an absence in him for such a long time but now it was filled.

Lily did not take the destruction of Neverland in the same way, he felt the loss of it keenly but not in the same way as she did. It was her home, her birthplace and royal seat and now it was gone. John rejoiced at his adrift life, Lily mourned it.

"We could get on a boat, travel," he whispered as she kissed his shoulder sleepily. She smiled but it faded into a frown.

"No one can leave the town without forgetting who they really are…maybe that's not a bad thing," she mused and John leaned up on an elbow to stare down at her. She was every beautiful, even in melancholy.

"We can find a way. I think almost three decades is long enough in one place don't you? Especially in _this_ dreadful place," he sniffed disdainfully and she hit his chest playfully.

"It's boring but it's the only home I have now. You – you can leave if you want to, I'm not stopping you," she added, her voice faltering. Jon stared at her in silence for a long time before he leaned down.

"I don't have a home, I have an office and a car. I'm not even in my world," he explained. This world was almost identical to his but his parents had no grave stones here. In this world they were just stories and stories have no bones. It was this morbid thought that birthed an idea, one that would finally take all of the Darlings home but he knew deep down home was where the woman lying beside him was, be that in this small apartment in cold Storybrooke, foggy London or a hundred feet deep in the ocean. He had been thinking of her for almost thirty years and now that they were together he would follow her anywhere.

A black kitten climbed onto the bed, struggling to make it and Lily scooped the tiny creature up with a cooing noise. "But I wouldn't leave you my baby," she kissed the kitten and settled her down between them on the cover to play with.

"Wendy is holding up all right. Hasn't cried once," John said thoughtfully, trying not to frown and failing. Lily hummed in consideration as John scratched the kitten under her chin. Purring filled the air.

"I haven't seen her for a long time but she had changed in the time I knew her. She's not the sister you knew."

"I know, trust me. I just hope she doesn't get any funny ideas about Pan. He's finally out of our lives and if we leave well alone it will stay like that. I know where her heart lies, I don't like it but I accept it but now, after a century, she's finally free."

"I know you want the best for her but she's not a child, she's the furthest thing from that. You can't make decisions for her," Lily scolded him gently and his lips thinned but he finally relented.

"I just want her to be safe. She was repeatedly taken and there was nothing we could do. I love her, even if she sometimes looks like a bird that wants to devour something," he added with a chuckle and Lily grinned.

"She's a queen. It was make believe but after long enough there's no difference between dreams and reality in Neverland. We called her queen and she was the one we talked with."

"A queen like you?" he asked coyly, bending over her and Lily lifted her chin as he lowered his mouth to her throat.

"Third in line. I was the irresponsible one out of my siblings because I could be," she sighed dramatically and then looked up at the ceiling with determination. "I want to find them…I might not even be third in line anymore…"

"Mmm, John Darling: prince consort. Yes, that sounds very appealing," he mouthed against her chest and then laughed as she pulled him up and kissed him, making the kitten jump to the ground with a disgruntled mew.

* * *

The passing of time is a human construct, there's no cosmic clock counting down the seconds or someone to cry out the hours. Categorising time is a way to make sense of life, to give it order otherwise it would be incoherent and chaotic.

Neverland had no time to pass and so Wendy measured its imagined passing from one sleep to the next, from the passing of decades she spotted in dreams. She suspected Peter measured time from his perceived _now_ to when he had the heart of the truest believer, like one delayed clock tick that spanned centuries.

Of course he felt those years, there was no denying it but he could construct adventures and events that seemed to span so much time that Wendy was never quite sure if the sun had set or not, if the moon in the sky had always been there. Very small children don't sense the passing of time, they exist _in it_ and that was often like Neverland.

Wendy's eyes drifted to the clock above the counter where Granny Lucas handed Michael two cups of tea. It was 8:15 in the morning and Wendy had been in Storybrooke for two days now. She had looked through the clothes rack in the seer's shop, picking out a simple powder blue dress and royal blue cardigan and tried not to cry as it hit her that all her things – dresses and skirts that she had painstakingly handmade – were now ash. It was a trivial loss, some of the lost boys had not made it off the island, but she was hit by these realisations without warning and could not stop the sadness that welled up in her.

"I can't stop looking at the clock. The time goes so quick," she confided to her brother as he sat opposite her. Michael nodded with a small smile.

"I'll get you a watch, if you like?"

"I'd never keep my eyes off it," she joked but meant it. Storybrooke was a sleepy town to everyone who lived there but to her it was buzzing. She had visited other worlds with Peter: Oz to collect poppy seeds to help him sleep, Fantasia and Wonderland but she had barely set foot in those realms before they had to leave again. She never really had the time to sit back and process it but in this world she could. Wendy took a sip of tea – _tea, glorious tea_ – when someone set down a bowl of cream and bananas before her.

"Banoffee pie. You ever tried it?" Neal asked as Emma and Tinkerbell stood behind him. Wendy smiled, shaking her head. "Prepare for greatness," he proclaimed theatrically and she laughed before eating. A loud moan escaped her and Michael chuckled, inviting the others to sit with them.

"Try it Tink, it's wonderful," she pushed a spoon at her friend who needed no other encouragement. It was the first time Wendy had seen the fairy since Neverland and she was relieved to notice the marked improvement in her health. She was practically glowing as she devoured the pudding and Wendy experienced a strange emotion, a tingle of happiness mixed with sadness. Tink was going to have a baby and she was now fit and healthy. For years Wendy had harboured a deep seeded regret and reproach for that fact. Now it was gone because now she could grow and maybe even have children, a thing she had stopped dreaming about.

Wendy looked up to find Emma watching her thoughtfully and experienced a great swooping feeling. She had held Emma in her arms when she was only a few hours old but now she was older, a mother to her own child. A restless feeling itched inside Wendy and she had never felt so utterly anomalous.

"How is Henry?" she asked gently.

"He's doing okay, he's with Regina," Neal explained as Emma continued to stare at her. Wendy gazed back unblinking, waiting for her to talk and after a long pause – a passing of time that Wendy felt acutely – Emma pulled out a bundle of paper.

"After Henry was born I started to receive these cards," she explained and set them down on the table. "Birthday cards, Christmas, Easter and even Halloween. I thought maybe Neal was sending them but it was you," she said, sitting back. Neal took them and Wendy thought he looked shamed.

"Yes, I sent them to you," she finally confessed. "I've been watching you since you were a baby, we all did," she explained, motioning to Michael who nodded. "I wasn't supposed to but once I saw you in that diner as a baby I couldn't stop myself. You were a real person, a lonely lost girl and not just a vessel for Henry, who was a similar vehicle for his heart."

"Is that what Pan thought?" Emma asked and Wendy nodded slowly. Emma shook her head in disgust.

"I think he did it to distance himself from the truth. He wanted to cut himself off from sentimentality," she explained, absentmindedly tapping at her chest, her fingers tumbling against the thimble pendant. It was warm. "I know sending little pieces of card doesn't make up for it but I wanted to do something to show that you weren't alone."

"They – they meant a lot to me," Emma explained haltingly, gathering the cards up into a neat pile again. She sat back with a sigh, still staring at Wendy in confusion. "What did he have over you?"

"Over me?" Wendy blinked in confusion.

"Yeah. In the end you sided with us, you helped us so your loyalty wasn't to him. You were there for a long time, I'm just trying to get my head around it."

Wendy sat in silence for a long time, the tick-tock of the clock constant in her ears before she spoke. She inclined her head to Tink. "I suppose it was something Tink said: be on your own side. When I was on that plank, the waves were raging and the Never Bird free I knew that I wanted to live and nothing else mattered. I suppose all must feel like that but I had never felt it so strongly, to hold onto it. I love Peter but I didn't want to die for him," she finished and then smirked with no humour. "Which is terrible because he sacrificed his life to save mine."

"What do you mean?" Neal asked and Wendy stared at Tink, who shrugged.

"Maybe they should hear your side of it. You're not that little girl in the book who flew away no more than I'll come back to life with a clap."

"You don't? Damn," Neal joked and she twisted her fingers into his side until he stopped laughing. Wendy smiled, nodding and then grew sombre.

"It's a long story and I can't actually remember some of it. Michael will have to fill in the gaps," she directed to him and he nodded in agreement. She inhaled, steeling herself before she began. "It's not a happy tale and I don't come out of it looking good but it's the truth and it happened to me. I suppose it all started with dreams…"

She spoke for hours, until her voice croaked and grew hoarse and tea cups accumulated up before her but by the end she was drained but feeling very cathartic. It was not an easy story to tell and she could tell by Emma's and Neal's blanched faces not an easy one to hear and after she fell silent they sat and processed. Finally Emma sat forward, shaking her head with a simmering anger.

"I was born, _created even_, to fulfil a function and I did but that's not my only purpose, my only fate. I've had my share of shitty events but I've always had a choice, I always felt that I could say no if I wanted, I could push back and make my way out and I did. It didn't work sometimes but it was my right as a woman, as a person. I'm sorry your life was so…controlled."

Wendy sat slumped, wanting to respond but not knowing what to say. She knew that her situation was not perfect, that her agency and freedom to live as she wanted was always hindered by Peter but as time passed she grew to withstand it but never accept. She gripped the thimble in her fist, feeling it pulse with the heart in her chest.

"You're free now Wendy, you're safe," Neal said and Wendy shot him a sharp look.

"I've always been able to take care of myself."

"We know you can," Emma said with a smile. "I know you're not a kid by any stretch of the imagination but you talk about true love and I can't believe it. My parents have true love, they would die for each other and their love is so strong, so untainted it's kinda sickening," Emma joked but grew serious again. "He kidnapped you, emotionally manipulated and flat out lied about not being able to save you so you would be stuck on that island with him. He killed a guy and had another killed for basically looking at you the wrong way. If someone did that to someone I love I'd probably tie a weight to that box and drop it into the Atlantic. Fuck him."

Emma finished passionately and Neal stared at her proudly, if not a little surprised. Emma had always been emotionally reserved but that wasn't because she was emotionally shallow, it was quite the opposite. She felt incredibly strong emotions, it was just expressing those feelings that came hard to her.

Wendy lowered her head, letting the words sink in and the heart in her chest seared with a burning pain. She was not so deluded to ignore what Emma was saying, she knew it was all a terrible truth and her life had never truly been her own since she was seventeen years old. As she ruminated it Tink sat up with a heavy frown.

"You talk like true love is all sunshine and happy ever after but it's not. I don't blame you, in this world that's what you've been told but it's not that simple, not that _nice_. When I had my wings I helped people find their happy endings and my speciality was true love. I was naïve and stupid, I thought true love was like what your parents have. Sometimes people are lucky and they get that but not always. You have to understand that true love is a rare fate that unites two souls and those two souls have no say in it. They're in love like a flash of lighting," she explained, snapping her fingers together. "They have no choice and not every soul has a happy, easy life. Sometimes it's cursed."

Tink finished bitterly and stared at Wendy sadly. She had always felt terribly guilty for helping Wendy find her true love, a decision that had been made on a whim. She had just been trying to cheer her up and prove to herself that true love was something you didn't walk away from. Tink rubbed her stomach gently, lost in thought.

"True Love or not you should always have the choice to walk away and you never did," Emma said and Wendy nodded, releasing the thimble finally. She had made up her mind.

"The world is all yours now," Neal said cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood. "You can go out with friends. Party and wakeup with the worst hangover! You can get an ugly tattoo and learn how to drive. Travel, meet new people. There's so much out there for you Wendy."

"Go to college?" Wendy smiled weakly and stared at her brother, who had been listening in a heavy, thoughtful silence. "I think I'll walk around for a bit. I have a lot to think about," she said and Tink slide out of the booth to let her pass. Michael half rose but Wendy motioned for him to sit. "I'll be perfectly fine alone. I'll see you in time for tea," she said and watched as Michael unclasped his watch and handed it to her.

"To keep track of the time. Four o'clock."

"I'll be there," she said and bid the others goodbye. Once out of the diner she lifted the watch to her ear and listened to the tiny mechanisms whirl and click in constant motion, hidden by the smooth face of the clock.

* * *

Seagulls swooped and dived, following the fishing boats out to sea until the harbour was filled only with the creaking and clanking of the pirate ship. Wendy cast a swift eye around before boarding and quickly headed towards the captain's quarters. She had spotted Hook heading towards the town so the ship should be deserted but if anyone was there she would say she forgot something on board. His quarters were as neat and orderly as always, the framed pictures of his old school still pride of place on the wall but she wasn't there to look at pictures of a young Killian. She searched through the elaborate desk, picking the locks of any that wouldn't open but the thing she searched for was nowhere to be seen. Wendy straightened, thinking that Tink may have what she needed when someone cleared their throat behind her and she turned sharply.

"Forget something?" Hook asked, leaning against the door frame leisurely. Wendy considered lying but opted for truth instead.

"Squid ink. I know you chased after the beasts when Peter didn't kill it and its offspring. Do you have any?" she asked directly, watching him as he came forward slowly.

"Perhaps. You want to freeze someone with magic? Let me guess: the Dark One."

Wendy did not deny it. She moved over to the pirate and stared up into his face beseechingly. "Whatever you may think of Peter the boys don't deserve to be trapped."

"I beg to differ, the lanky one is right where he should be," he replied snidely and Wendy rolled her eyes before pinning him with an intense stare.

"You killed Rufio and he didn't deserve to die -"

"He would have killed Tink, I'd run him through a hundred times. I killed him but you know who gave the order so if you're trying to wrangle some guilt out of me you're speaking to the wrong person," he spoke harshly and Wendy felt a spike of rage but battled it down.

"Please Killian? I will confront Gold, ink or no ink, but you'll likely be saving my life if you just hand some over," she said in exasperation and Hook sighed. He placed a hand on her shoulder and made her sit, which she did. Hook took a seat opposite and leaned down so they were eye to eye.

"You've always been stubborn and I see you haven't improved with age. I remember the first time I saw you, terrified and so young watching my men die. I hoped when he sent you away you'd never return and my heart sank when you came back. We know what Neverland was and what we had to endure but it was never the island that was the problem, it was always Pan. _Let him go_," he stressed and Wendy snorted.

"It seems today is one where people feel obliged to tell me what's what. As if I've never rubbed two thoughts together. I want to free him, I want to free all of them but what I do _after that_ is my choice and it's not one that I have to discuss with others," she responded irritably and he smirked and bowed.

"As my lady wishes," he joked and sat back, sighing. "I feel like an unmoored ship, the anchor gone. It was always there, the island, but it's only really noticeable by its absence. Tink says the same."

"She's looking well," Wendy remarked warmly and Killian smiled.

"I don't know if it's because Neverland is gone or using the pixie dust but since coming here she's so much better. She's practically glowing," he remarked innocently and Wendy bit the inside of her mouth. It was not her secret to tell but god how she wanted to.

"So are you two…?"

"I couldn't possibly say," he answered secretively but there was a flash of unease in his eyes. "She was talking about seeing the nuns but she wouldn't say why."

Wendy sat up, shocked. "The nuns? But that's where the Blue Fairy is! She's the root of all our troubles!"

"She's not going there to take on the habit Darling, have no fear of that," he joked but Wendy shook her head.

"But they're fairies, you know more than anyone how much she wants to be accepted again, how much she wants her wings back. Who knows what she'll do to get them back, even side with Blue," she cried out, knowing she was being paranoid but she couldn't help it. Hook stared at her in worry, considering it before he shook his head with scorn.

"All this commotion over one fairy. You don't really believe she's the root of all this? I know she took Tink's wings but to paint her as a mastermind, pulling our strings for centuries is just unbelievable," he was unconvinced and Wendy couldn't blame him. She narrowed her eyes.

"How did you come to Neverland?" she asked and he blinked, shifting in his chair before answering.

"As a boy I was shipwrecked on the island and Pan found me. It was a fluke, I must have slipped through one of the mermaid doors under the waves. He called it fate. I don't know how long I stayed there but it felt like years. I eventually left, lived with my aunt Emily until I joined the navy," he explained, looking a little uncomfortable. Killian was not the sharing kind.

"But after the navy, after you became a pirate?"

"Mr Smee was in possession of a portal bean. He said he got it off a fairy…" he explained, trailing off and contemplating it. Wendy felt sure Smee had encountered the Blue Fairy or someone associated with her. She was at the heart of it and it seemed this was the end of her elaborate path. Why? Why here of all places?

"I know this place holds its share of villains," she said, staring at him significantly and he scoffed. "But there is one who is the worst and no one knows it."

"Even if what you're saying is true it's of no importance. From reports she's dying, so whatever devilment you think she's got in store for us I'd say we're safe."

Wendy rose, her mouth set in harsh lines. "I don't care if she's dying, I want her to answer for what she's done, to admit that to everyone she has wronged. That means everyone currently stuck in Pandora's Box and everyone in this town, whether they know it or not."

"Well if she confesses I will admit myself duped. I don't have any more ink, I'd give it to you if I did because I know you'll confront Gold. Take Bae with you, I think he's the only thing that will keep Rumplestiltskin from turning you into a bird or something equally as crushable," he said and then smiled at her. "Be careful."

She walked to the door, spotting Tink's bag slung over a chair and turned to him before she left. "If you love Tinkerbell you'll stop her from going to the convent. In fact if you love her you'll _tell her_ because she's not going to wait around forever. She has to consider more than her own life now," Wendy explained and left, leaving the pirate to blink in confusion, the first flash of realisation settling into his mind.

* * *

Mr Gold's Pawn Shop was cluttered with objects and trinkets from lives half lived, all dusty memories of a land once inhabited by dragons, dwarves and sleeping beauties. It was achingly sad and as Wendy stepped into the shop she was rolled over with a sense of acute loss. All these things were abandoned, the lives they had once filled too long passed to reclaim. It was like walking amongst ghosts.

Gold twirled a stick of dark wood, about the length of her forearm, before snapping the black wand away into a case. The man had ripped her heart out not long ago but he smiled at her pleasantly, like he would to any costumer. Wendy lifted her chin but he spoke before she could.

"I know why you're here but I'm afraid you're too late."

"Why am I here?"

"For the box of course," he said, his gold tooth flashing in the dim light. "I don't have it anymore."

"It was taken?" she asked anxiously, rushing forward as Gold gazed at her calmly. He lifted a finger.

"Not taken, nothing in here can be taken unless I want it to be. No it was…exchanged," he flourished his hand at the thin chest containing the black wand. "Pandora's Box passes from seller to buyer, from hand to hand. No one keeps it for long, it's cursed."

"Who bought it?" she asked, slapping her hands down on the cabinet. He grinned.

"You said something on the ship that has stayed with me. Something about us being moved like pieces on a board and I got to thinking about a certain winged woman who's clinically fond of the colour blue," Gold said, brushing the top of the chest. "This wand belonged to a very evil fairy that from all accounts was defeated by Blue. Her wand was said to be destroyed as it was too powerful and filled with dark magic to exist. And yet…" he tapped his fingers on top of the chest and Wendy nodded.

"She kept it."

"Indeed she did, until now. She clearly thought the box was worth more than the wand but why?"

"I don't know but I have to get it back," Wendy moved towards the door as Gold shrugged.

"I'm afraid I can't help you there. Correction: won't help you. Unlike you I want Pan exactly where he is. I admit I thought you would feel the same. In the end it was your life or Henry's heart and we both know which one he picked. Leave him be Miss Darling, live your life and forget Peter Pan."

Wendy didn't answer him. She ran out of the shop, the door slamming closed behind her as she gripped the thimble in her hand. It was enchanted to find Peter, growing hot and beating like a heart in his presence. It pulsed faintly in her hand but as she lifted her eyes to the treeline where she knew the convent was she felt it grow warmer. She would get the box back but as she walked back towards the seer's place the warnings she had heard that day spun around her mind like a carousal.

_Leave him be._

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_Wendy has a lot to think on. Don't worry guys, this is still a Darling Pan fic, even if Peter is currently trapped in a box ;)_


	11. Chapter 11

Days passed, weeks and the weather in Storybrooke grew cold, the wind blowing off the Atlantic bracing. Some days she would just stand by the harbour and watch the sea, the gulls crying and swooping overhead. Seals popped their heads up for a few seconds, black inky eyes wide and innocent, and though Wendy knew there was nothing in the sea but fish and seals she expected to see the flash of a glowing fin and the crooning lullaby of the mermaid's siren song. Neverland was gone but she still expected to see it when she drew the curtains back and experienced a hollow blow when all she saw was a normal New England sky.

Peter and the Lost Boys were still trapped and the guilt over their confinement grew sharper each day. It was not the length of time that caused her such guilt but that the time grew easier. She was starting to grow accustomed to her freedom. But as that sense of contentment warmed her it was followed by a stinging shame. She couldn't leave the boys to that fate. The Blue Fairy would not have traded for the box if she was just going to keep it on a mantelpiece, she could have left it in Gold's possession if that was the case. Wendy summarised she could do two things: free them or destroy them. Or both.

She wanted to act but her brothers knew her desire and kept a careful eye on her. But she could not spend another day staring up at the building through the trees. It was probably nonsense but when she lifted her eyes to the convent she had the distinct impression that something was staring back.

Her assertions that the Blue Fairy, and possibly the other nun fairies under her thumb, were dangerous was taken with a mixture of politely concealed disbelief or outright denial. She could not blame them, she had precious little to convict the Blue Fairy with but still it was incredibly frustrating not to be believed. She had taken the news about the fairy's ill health as a good omen and hoped, rather naïvely, that she would just die and save Wendy the trouble of confronting her but from reports she appeared to be on the mend, though still weak. Neverland was destroyed, how could she be growing stronger?

Something had to be done.

* * *

"This is Google Maps. A map on the internet," Michael explained as John hovered by a bookcase. They were in Storybrooke Library and Wendy was having an induction into the marvels of the 21st Century. She gave her brother a withering gaze.

"I can see it's a map, on the internet. I wasn't completely cut off from new inventions," she said stiffly and tried to conceal her surprise when the map twitched to satellite view and showed her an expanse of forest. She leaned closer but not too close, the screen made her vision blur. "Where is it?"

"Storybrooke," Michael said rather smugly and sat back. "To the outside world Storybrooke doesn't exist. The magic concealing this place reaches even to space," he pointed upwards and Wendy followed his pointing finger.

"It is an incredibly powerful curse. Emma broke most of it but I don't think it can ever be completely broken. If it was we wouldn't be here," Belle piped up as she slotted books onto a shelf. Wendy smiled at her politely, though she felt a strange squirming feeling whenever she saw the woman. She was the Dark Ones fiancée. She was instantly gracious and pleasant when she learned who she and her brothers were, there was nothing to mark her as evil or cruel. She was not someone you expected to be paired with a beast.

_Not that I've got a leg to stand on in that department…_

Pushing these hypocritical thoughts away she followed Belle to the children's section, a colourful and cheery area of the library covered with beanbag chairs and toys. Wendy froze as she saw silhouetted figures flying before a clock tower painted on a wall. Belle smiled at her expression.

"Look, I'm over here," she said and pulled Wendy to a corner where a woman in a gown was dancing with a large hairy beast.

"They get it so wrong," Wendy said.

"That was my initial reaction but then I reconsidered. All the stories have the essence of truth. Who knows maybe in some universe that's exactly the way it goes," she laughed and Wendy stared at her thoughtfully.

"Essence of truth…what's mine?"

"That all children must grow up? Except one," she added with a smile but it fell at the troubled expression on Wendy's face.

"I think we're similar, in a way. This is forward so forgive me but if your Mr Gold was in trouble would you rescue him?"

"Of course," Belle answered without hesitation.

"No matter the things he has done and may continue to do?"

Belle narrowed her eyes, thinking carefully before answering. "I don't know your history, like we've said the stories are muddled but for me…? I believe people deserve second chances, even third! I believe people have inherent goodness in them but sometimes it's only noticed by someone willing to take a chance and believe that they can change. He's not perfect, he's done awful things and I can't ignore that but I won't turn my back on him either. I love him."

"Would you sacrifice your own happiness? Even if he hurts you? Even if he picks power over you?" The words shake with emotion she has been containing for weeks. _He chose power over me_.

"Yes. It's happened but I believe in him, in his goodness. It's true love, it's nothing like a storybook but it's ours and we'll fight to make it work," Belle said with conviction and Wendy narrowed her eyes as she felt a curling annoyance rise from the pit of her stomach. Belle was pleasant, Belle was sweet and kind but she was also pathetic. Maybe it was Peter's heart in her chest but Wendy knew better, she would feel just as disturbed because she could see glimmers of herself in the librarian's sentiments.

"It's easy to see the possibility of goodness when you don't focus on the past or present, isn't it?" she said and left Belle to frown lightly behind her. It was rude of her and she felt bad but she was also hurting. She would apologise the next time she saw the woman. She got a few steps up the road, heading towards the sea when John called her from the library entrance.

"Don't forget tomorrow Wendy!"

"Tomorrow? What's tomorrow?"

"Your birthday silly," he answered with a quick grin and ducked back into the library. Wendy stared after him, completely stunned, and then felt a powerful pressure beginning to grow in her chest as her eyes prickled and stung. Hair flying around her face she headed into the privacy of the woods where no one could see her and cried until her throat hurt and her chest heaved with sobs.

Wendy Darling hadn't had a birthday since 1917 and the day after her parents had been killed. Her birthday was not something she wanted to celebrate but maybe enough time had passed now. Maybe it would not be shameful. Tomorrow she would be 18 but she didn't look any older, not even a year had marked her body.

"I'm seventeen and a month," The sobs turned into laughter and anyone who heard it avoided going near. It was echoing and crazed. Finally she sobered up, looking around and she had never felt so lonely, or missed Peter so much. Once calmed she rose and walked back to the town. She passed her brothers convertible and making sure that no one was watching she popped open the boot. She had to pinch John's keys but she should be able to place them back without him noticing.

She had hoped to find squid ink on Hook's ship but she knew exactly where it would be, it was just getting access to it that was the problem. Her brother had worked for Peter for years and over that time they had accumulated a number of special artefacts. Hidden in a compartment was all the magic she needed to plan an all-out attack. But this would be for defence, of it came to that.

Wendy stocked up with what she needed and then left the car as she found it.

* * *

Michael had promised to get her a watch of her own and as her birthday dawned he gifted her with a wrist watch. She placed it by her ear as her brothers, Tiger Lily and Lucy waited to enter The Rabbit Hole, the town's only a subterranean club. Wendy glanced at her reflection in a mirror over the staircase. Gleaming honey blonde hair curled to her shoulders, some of the curls clipped back by glittering clips. She wore minimal make up, though Lily had managed to get a little blush and lipstick on her and while she dismissed it as vanity she could not stop staring at her reflection. She wore a knee length layered dress, the under layer a deep dusky rose red while the top layer was a sheer pink tulle that lopped over her bare shoulders. She realised with a swoop that it was very similar to her last birthday dress, though this was far more risqué, the neckline plunging and her arms and legs bare. She felt no shame or shyness, she was far too old for that, but she experienced a frisson of pleasure every time she looked in a mirror. She looked like a different person.

The bar was dark and cramped with patrons already and Wendy caught a few familiar faces in the crowd. Emma was at the bar with Neal, Jefferson, Hook and a man Wendy didn't know. Tink was sat by a table and waved them over when she spotted them. Wendy took a moment to appreciate her old friend, who like herself was no longer dressed for the jungle but now in modern clothing. Her hair was partially down, neatly curled and she wore a simple dark dress that clung to her curves. She looked beautiful but occupied and as Wendy sat beside her she spotted that even Hook was dressed differently, opting for a white shirt and black pants. Nothing too drastic but she supposed the pirate gear must make him stick out like a sore thumb in Storybrooke.

"You look wonderful Wendy! Happy birthday," Tink said and kissed Wendy's cheek, taking her hand.

"Thank you. You look lovely," she said and Tink batted her lashes demurely before laughing.

"At least someone appreciates it," she sighed and doggedly refused to look at Hook. Wendy lowered her voice as her brothers helped their dates sit, like gentlemen.

"Have you two talked at all? About certain matters," she whispered and Tink smirked weakly at Wendy's choice of words before growing sombre.

"I tried but he looks like a crocodile is after him every time I open my mouth. Something's put the wind up him," she confided and watched him as he said something to Emma, which Wendy guessed was lewd by her unimpressed expression. The captain was getting drunk.

"I didn't say anything but he might have guessed," Wendy said and Tink frowned at her.

"Wendy…"

"I'm sorry! Honestly I didn't say anything…I _may_ have inferred," she added delicately and Tink laughed suddenly, hand on her belly. Wendy stared at the fairy seriously. "What are you going to do?"

"Something stupid. I'm not human, we don't gestate like you...But then it's half human. I just don't know. I – I need advice, from my own people," she said firmly but held her breath.

"The fairies? You're still thinking about going to them? What about Blue?"

"Chances are I won't even see her. Killian stopped me going and we had a fight but it's not his decision. Not that he has a bloody clue…or if he does he's too scared to say. He struts and flirts but he's just a boy, like Peter," she tapped her temple and sighed. "I just need to talk to one of the godmothers, they know about babies," Tink whispered and sat straight as Hook turned and leaned on the bar, trying and failing not to look at Tink. Finally she sighed and gazed at him, bored.

"What would you rate it?"

"Three, maybe four in an hour or two," he answered and Tink smiled. From what Wendy found out the fairy and the captain had travelled to many worlds and in their travels spent many an hour frequenting bars, pubs and unsavoury salons. They had come to rating the places they went to, something Wendy thought was delightfully domestic but Tink cringed at the assertion. Like it or not they had spent the majority of their lives together and with that familiarity comes comfort and routine.

"It's Wendy's birthday," Tink explained and Hook inclined his head to her.

"Manny happy returns."

"How old are you now?" Neal asked and Hook rolled his eyes.

"Impertinent."

"What? It's not like I'm actually in my thirties. I look good for two hundred," he boosted and Emma smiled.

"Yes you do," she said and Wendy thought she was a little drunk. She had never seen the blonde woman full on smile. It was charming.

"I'm eighteen going on a hundred and twelve," she answered and then Jefferson started to sing her happy birthday and soon everyone in the bar was singing. Wendy grinned, feeling an intense swoop of Deja-vu as people cheered and clapped until finally a cake was set down before her. Numerous candle flames flickered, bathing her face with warmth and as she closed her eyes she clutched the tiny wish that the Childlike Empress had given her but relaxed her hand as she blew out the candles. She would not use the wish, not until she really had need of it.

As the night lengthened and people got up to dance Wendy sat back down, tired and happy. She had danced with everyone and while she was celebrating a very odd birthday indeed she felt wonderfully _normal_. But as she watched Emma dancing with Jefferson, who clearly did not know the concept of personal space, Wendy felt a hollowness. She was surrounded by people but she was alone. It felt wrong without Peter and it wasn't just now. She woke in the morning and was always disorientated because he was not beside her, she felt isolated when she walked down the street and no one greeted her as the Lost Boys did. The sight of Hook and Tink, of her brothers and Lily, made her feel grounded. It had been real and they had been there but it was not the same, they weren't Peter.

As Tink stared forlornly at Hook Wendy tapped her hand. "If you're so dead set on going you won't be alone," Wendy said firmly and Tink smiled. She wanted to protect her friend, offer support but a plan was forming in her mind. She could not enter the convent freely but with Tinkerbell there, the infamous banished fairy now back and pregnant? Wendy should have ample opportunity to find the box, to find Peter.

As music drummed and drink was poured Michael and Lucy stood up, heading towards the bar when the red haired seer suddenly stopped before Tinkerbell.

"We've met before," she uttered and Tink shifted uncomfortably.

"Yeah, it was a long time ago."

"It was. You found your captain, as I foresaw," Lucy nodded, head tilting to the side and Wendy watched her hands sway at her sides, as if she was hearing music other then the thumping bass that pounded their ears. Finally she smiled and offered Tink her hand, who took it after a pause.

"Are you going to tell me my fortune?"

"If you like," Lucy uttered, now utterly distracted. Her free hand wavered delicately through the air and she smiled again. "Congratulations, she will be beautiful."

"What?" Hook said, standing beside them. Tink's eyes widened and then pointedly did not look at him. Lucy gasped and then suddenly gripped Tink's wrists, making Wendy jerk up.

"Powerful, very powerful. Sought after. You'll have to sail over many a sea, many realms to outrace them but your ship is swift and you girl is so smart, so lovely. Loved and protected, she'll rule the waves and the air…and in time the court," Lucy whispered, sounding wistful and then her hands slipped from Tink's.

There was a ringing silence, filled only with a thrumming pop song, until a chair scraped back and Tink jumped up and ran out. After a pause Killian chased after her with a stunned expression that was already curling into a grin. Those gathered watched them disappear and then turned to each other until Neal raised a glass.

"Mazel tov."

John slumped down beside Wendy, Neal and Emma following. His glasses were slightly askew and Wendy straightened them as he sneered. Tiger Lily was dancing awkwardly with a man, the one she did not recognise.

"Who is that?"

"You've met him actually. That's Pinocchio," John explained and Wendy focused on the handsome blue eyed man. There was nothing of the scared little boy entrusted with a tiny baby there now. John stared at him with clear distaste and it was not just because he was flirting with his girlfriend.

"You know him too?" Neal asked curiously as Emma sipped a glass of water. Wendy suspected she did not let her hair down often.

"Oh yes, unfortunately. We kept an eye on him and eventually he joined the Home Office."

"What's that?" Emma asked.

"Well it's an organisation set up by us and the boys who escaped Neverland. We investigated reports of magic in this world and those parallel to it. It was originally set up with the purpose of stopping Peter but well, it took a different route," John said, a little shame faced and Wendy could not look at him. She would always feel deeply ashamed that her brothers became Peter's lackeys. She wanted more for them and now that was possible.

"August worked for you?"

"Yes. We set him up with a good family, the Booths, but he was wild, never sticking to assignments and wandering off to do god knows what. We finally had to get rid of him after the embezzling," John said and there was an unspoken _good riddance_ there.

"He stole your money?" Wendy asked, appalled and eyed August with distaste. Emma cocked an eyebrow at Neal.

"And you trusted that man's word?"

"He told me that if he didn't tell the cops you'd die. I didn't have any reason not to trust him, he knew everything and I couldn't risk your life," Neal said with quiet passion, still obviously deeply guilt-ridden. Emma's eyes widened.

"He told you I was gonna die?"

"Yeah. He said if you weren't locked up you would be in terrible danger. I regret ever listening to him but I was scared," he admitted and Emma nodded, not looking at him. Finally she stared at John.

"Was it you who told August about me?"

"No. Pan never told us anything about you. It was Wendy really who told us to keep an eye on you. He seemed content with the way your life unfolded," John admitted and Wendy nodded. It was true. Emma's life had been harsh and lonely but according to Peter that was her fate.

"Content…" Emma shook her head slowly and Wendy felt terrible. As August led Lily over to the bar the sheriff called him and he walked over, a little grudgingly Wendy thought. He nodded his head to John who did not return his greeting.

"Hi Emma."

"I've got a question for you," Emma said abruptly and August's brows rose in surprise.

"Okay, shoot."

"Who told you that I would die if I didn't go to prison? Who was feeding you information?"

They all looked at August as he stood in silence, his eyes flicking over them. His jaw clenched and he shrugged nervously. "I remembered, from being a kid in the Enchanted Forest."

"Nah, you knew way too much," Neal said, unconvinced. "You knew specific things. My father told me how you tricked him. How could you know all that?"

Wendy narrowed her eyes at him. She had read Pinocchio as a child, as she suspected many at the table had too. She leaned forward, smiling gently, remembering the scared little boy shivering under a blanket as Michael Jackson played in a diner.

"I think I know. You were never affected by the curse, like Emma. We lost contact with you but you sought someone else out didn't you? I think I know who, she made you after all."

"She gave me life, my father made me," August corrected her swiftly and then sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "You're right, I went to the Blue Fairy. You have to understand that I was turning back into wood and no magic I came across could fix me. I had to go to her and when I was younger I did. I thought she wouldn't know anything, I thought she'd be under the curse like everyone else but I had to try."

"But she wasn't was she?" Wendy asked and he nodded, taking a seat opposite them.

"At first she played dumb but when she realised who I was, that I could move freely between here and the outside world she confessed the truth. She told me everything, about Emma and Rumplestiltskin and his son. She used what little magic she had left to save me."

"Why?" Wendy couldn't see why she would risk being discovered for a thief.

August smiled weakly. "She's my mother, she gave me life and she looks after her children," his words dripped with sarcasm but Wendy thought there was a part of him bleeding, a sadness he couldn't hide.

"She thought of Peter as her son but she still trapped him, used him," Wendy said and turned to the others. "I know you didn't believe me before but you must see now? She's been quietly playing all of you without you even knowing it. I don't know what she has planned but I believe she's not finished yet," Wendy said and John nodded in agreement as Michael and Lucy stopped dancing and came over to hear.

"Wendy is right. The Blue Fairy is like sweet poison and we've all been gladly swallowing it. She reminds me of a spider, still and poised at the centre of a web. Just because she doesn't move doesn't mean she's not dangerous."

"As poetic as ever I see," August drawled and Michael patted down his coat, frowning.

"Wallet and valuables all accounted for, not at all up to your usual standards Booth."

"I don't do that anymore," August said in annoyance and Neal sighed.

"I believe you guys, I do but what are we going to do? March up to her door and demand answers?"

"It's a start," Emma said, rising and Neal rose with her. Emma stared at Wendy gravely. "Apparently she's still sick and not receiving visitors. She might have been the Blue Fairy but here she still acts like Mother Superior. Who knows maybe she is but if she's the reason I went to jail, if she's the reason for the curse and more? I wanna know _why_."

Emma left the table and sat down beside Regina, who had come in for a quiet drink unnoticed. Wendy left them to talk and rose, needing some air. Ears ringing as she stood in the quiet of the early morning she spotted Tink and Hook on the corner of the street, arguing.

"Be with Swan?" he asked incredulously as Tink stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her friend was the jealous type and she made no excuses for it. Tink felt deeply and she was usually consumed with a particular feeling, be it joy or rage. It made for some spectacular emotional explosions.

"You flirt with her, don't deny it," she hissed and he shrugged.

"I'm not. Come on Tink, how long have you known me? I flirt with everyone. I flirt with _Smee_ when his hat as at that rakish angle I favour," he joked and Tink tried hard not to smile but as he sidled up to her she sighed and lowered her arms.

"You're going to be a father," she said as he tilted his head, playfully playing with a curl of blonde hair.

"I am, aren't I? I know I never said, never showed you but this is all I ever wanted. You and her," he seemed dazed but overjoyed. He brushed his lips against hers softly and then whispered something into her ear. Tink gave a lovely smile, eyes aglow, and as she caught sight of Wendy she winked. Wendy watched them walking away, back towards his ship and felt relieved, if a little jealous herself.

No one would be going home with her tonight but if she was successful tomorrow that would be made right.

* * *

The convent was a low slung but large building that overlooked the town. It was shrouded by trees but she was told that the nuns had acres of land hidden from view. Not many people had actually been inside so Wendy just had to take Grumpy's word for it. She was shocked to learn that dwarves were specifically bred by fairies to mine magic dust for them, like worker ants and they had no say in it, until now it seemed.

"Yeah we get paid, if you do something good don't do it for free sister," he advised gruffly and Tink nodded in agreement.

_At least they work. What do I do now?_

Wendy buffeted the thought away as she and Tink reached the porch. Tink had arranged a meeting with a fairy and had been granted permission to come. Whether they knew she was bringing Wendy too she couldn't say. Wendy had considered telling her brothers about her plans but knew that they would only stop her. The less people knew the better. Straight in and straight out, that was the plan. A neat, small nun called Astrid answered the door, waving shyly to Grumpy, before Tink and Wendy were shown in.

"Mother Superior is still bedridden I'm afraid, so she won't be able to see you."

"That's all right. I was hoping to see a godmother," Tink said anxiously and the brown haired fairy-nun bounced on her feet once.

"Well you're in luck, newly ordained," Astrid said proudly and Tink sighed in relief. Wendy smiled and then shifted on her feet uncomfortably. The thimble in her hand was warm and pounding. Peter was close.

"Sorry you couldn't direct me to the nearest bathroom could you?" Wendy asked apologetically and Astrid gave her directions. Squeezing Tink's hand she left them in the guest room and walked down a corridor. The convent was warm and full of light, the wood panelling gleaming and smelling of bees wax. There was no sense of menace, of something dangerous lurking but Wendy stepped softly, her breath coming in short bursts.

She twisted a handle and found the bathroom and then closed it again firmly. Then she tightened her hand over the thimble and started walking again. It was enchanted to find him and as she walked the silver grew increasingly hot. She slipped down a staircase, hiding from any nuns that approached until she finally found herself in a short windowless hallway. The thimble was now too hot to hold.

"Peter…" she whispered, pressing her ear to a door. There was no sound beyond. All the doubt, all the trepidation about her life with Peter was blown away by a hungry need. She loved him with everything she had and she would save him. Holding her breath she twisted the handle, her palm sweating and the door opened with a click. She expected to find a vault, a dungeon, a safe or even just an ordinary supply closet but it was neither of those things. She had opened a door to the fairy Court.

Through tall arched windows stars sparkled like finally cut diamonds studded in a velvety black sky. A soft breeze blew, making the silk tapestries hanging from the walls gently float. The hallway was deserted. Wendy had been to this place once before, but she had been half dying at the time. It was beautiful but eerier, like an abandoned tomb.

_Or a waiting one…_

Shoving the morbid thought away she stepped into the fairy realm, spotting a pedestal at the far end of the hallway. Holding her breath again Wendy dashed towards it, seeing with a whoop of triumph that Pandora's Box was sat on top of the plinth. Feeling like she would be ambushed at any second Wendy snatched up the box and ran back, the thimble blazing against the skin of her chest. As she flew through the open door and slammed it shut, heart hammering, doubt nibbled at her.

_It was too easy…but without the thimble I never would have found the right door. There must be hundreds here._

The dull grey box thrummed between her hands and she wondered not for the first time what it was like inside. Were they being tortured? Did they merely sleep? Was it an entire world in there? Soon she would find out. Placing the box into her bag she leaped up the stairs and then began to walk aimlessly around, feigning confusion until a harried looking nun found her.

"I think I'm lost," Wendy said with an embarrassed grimace and the fairy-nun softened. Fairies were said to be able to detect liars but clearly this one was faulty. Or Wendy had just grown that skilled at deception. She was walked back and found Tink hugging Astrid. Wendy smiled.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, everything is fine. I was scared, I was really scared I admit it but everything will be okay now," Tink said and Wendy was surprised to see tears in her eyes. She knew that Tink had been shunned by fairies but maybe these fairies were different, despite who ruled them. If she even still did.

"I'm happy for you. You got the advice you needed?"

"And more. I've been welcomed back. I'm not staying," she added quickly as Wendy was about to argue. "But I know I have a place here."

"She'll be fine," Astrid said encouragingly. "I'll take care of her and she's right, none of us are stuck here, we can leave if we want. We're fairies, we're creatures of the air and stars. You can't keep us down for long," she said and though her words were meant with no threat Wendy could not stop a shudder passing through her. Wendy adjusted the bag, feeling the box shift and felt terribly suspicious. Astrid continued to smile, utterly oblivious while Tink started to frown. Wendy wanted to run, her senses suddenly heightened but she didn't want to give herself away. She should have run.

"Stop! Stop her!" a stern voice said and Wendy looked up to see three nuns standing at the top of the stairs. They pointed at Wendy and she jumped into action immediately. She pushed the bag into Tink's hands.

"Run!"

"What?" Tink stared around in confusion as Wendy suddenly slipped a black collar around Astrid's wrist. The nun collapsed to the ground without a sound.

"Run! It doesn't matter if they catch me but _you_ have to run!" Wendy panted as she shoved her hands into her coat pockets and threw fist falls of poppy seed dust at the approaching fairies. Tink hesitated but then ran for the door when a spell almost hit her. Wendy pushed her out of the door and ran after her but she only got a few paces before she was hit in the back and went sprawling. Unable to move she watched Tink run, dodging spells and enchantments and before Wendy fainted she thought it was peculiar that none of the magic touched Tink, as if she was protected.

* * *

By the time Tink stopped in a wooded grove the box practically jumped out of the bag to the floor. She looked behind her, feeling an overwhelming guilt for leaving Wendy behind but her baby was safe. Crouching down, heart hammering with anticipation and dread she waved her hand over the ruby stopper and it spun upwards, the cogs and wheels turning. She moved back as red smoke came billowing out, a vast cloud that finally dispersed to reveal a large gathering of boys. They were just as grubby, just as heavily armed but as they blinked in the sunlight they stared around in bewilderment, the vestige of dreamy smiles on their faces. She could only guess what she had released them from but by their beatific expressions it was certainly not a mere box.

Felix stood directly before her, looking just as dazed and oddly serene as the others. "Felix!" she yelled and ran towards him, grabbing his arms. He stared down at her, seeing her for the first time and a light frown started to mar his apparent calm.

"Tink?"

"Yes! Are you all right? Where's Peter?" He was nowhere in sight. As Felix shook his head in confusion Tink pushed through the crowd, calling out Peter's name but no answer came. One of the twins, Edward she thought, shook his head as she passed him and then touched her shoulder.

"He's not here."

"Where is he? I thought he made it off the island?" She felt sick at the prospect and Edward smiled. It was terrible and she realised his other twin was missing.

"He did. He was in there with us but then he was gone."

"Someone must have taken him out. Rumpelstiltskin?" Felix guessed, his dazed stare clearing. He looked around like an angry hawk but kept close to her. It was oddly comforting.

"No, I think we just left him behind in the convent," Tink cursed and would have run back but Felix grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?!" Felix shouted.

"The town! Wendy's brothers are back there, people with magic! We need their help," she said and then wondered how they would take that. They had been enemies not long ago.

Felix clenched his jaw and she knew part of him just wanted to dash into the convent, the lost boys at his back but he was pragmatic. They were no match against fairies. She rubbed her stomach, thankful for her lucky escape. Felix eyed her quickly.

"Okay. Stay close," he said and whistled and the boys were on alert at once. "Move!" he shouted and the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell headed into Storybrooke.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_Peter and Wendy scenes to come next..._


	12. Chapter 12

"He still won't agree. He's weak as a kitten."

"He's stubborn, my betwixt-between..." a voice sighed, a voice laced with annoyance and worry. A mother's voice.

Wendy's eyes snapped open and she lifted her cheek from the cold flagstone. A dark grey hem swished the floor before her eyes and she looked up as a nun wheeled the Blue Fairy to a window. It only took one glance to see that Wendy wasn't in Storybrooke any longer. Stars _whirled_ through a plush purple sky, as if in dance, and she had to drag her eyes away from the wonderful sight.

Blue was still in her modest nun's outfit, her auburn hair coifed into a neat bun and a gold crucifix glinted in the ethereal light. Wendy could not take her eyes off the cross, wondering if the fairy had any faith and if it was inconvenient to her present circumstances. But then Blue smiled as Wendy got to her feet and such thoughts vanished. Wendy was dressed in slim black jeans and a blue sweater and she was out of place, as the nuns were, but Blue shifted comfortably in her wicker wheelchair, wand clutched in her lap.

"I'm sorry we had to stun you but they are under orders to deter any thieves. You'd be surprised how often it happens," she added with a smile and Wendy looked behind her. The chamber door was wide open.

"Tink got away?"

"Yes. She's always been able to slip out of danger," she said proudly and Wendy eyed her suspiciously. Since waking the fairy-nun had been nothing but calm and polite, friendly even. She appeared very pale and was obviously sick but Wendy knew appearances could be deceptive.

"What do you want? Where's Peter?" she recalled suddenly what the nun had said about someone being too stubborn to eat. The thimble was burning constantly against her chest. He was very close.

"Peter is alive but…devastated. The loss of Neverland hit him hard, as you can imagine," she sighed and motioned for Wendy to come closer and after a taut pause she did. Blue looked up into Wendy's face and smiled. "It's been a very long time since we last met and it was under shameful circumstances."

"Shameful? Because Peter tried to kill you?" anger coursed through her and she squeezed her hands into fists.

"Shameful because I let it get that far. There's not a day goes by I don't regret what happened, what I did. I'm sorry," she said and Wendy was completely floored because the woman meant it. Sincerity rang as clear as a bell through her voice and her eyes were darkly tormented. Could she be telling the truth? Was it just another rouse? Michael has called her honeyed poison and she must not swallow her words.

"You're sorry? Sorry for tricking a little boy and twisting him into a monster? Sorry for moving people like pieces on a chest board for your own ends? You say these words and they sound so convincing but I think if I lived as long as you I'd be able to spin lies into the purest of truths," she argued and felt her stomach plummet because she knew it was the truth. If she lived forever she knew in some ways she could become very like the woman sitting before her.

Blue smiled patiently, nodding her head. "Everything you've said is true, I've done all those things and more. I've done terrible things in the name of my cause but do you think it's impossible that a person can change?"

"…No," Wendy admitted grudgingly.

"I set the Neverland plan into motion five hundred years ago, I've had centuries to think, to grow ashamed but it was coming to Storybrooke that finally changed me. Becoming Mother Superior has fundamentally altered me, as others who have cursed lives will tell you. I'm not the same."

"You traded a wand, a dark magic wand, for the box! That doesn't sound like someone who has changed to me," Wendy sneered, looking down her nose at the fairy who continued to stare calmly up at her.

"Why do you think I took it? Why do you think I made such an elaborate plan for you to get the box? You know taking the box was easy but have you asked yourself why?"

"So you could capture me in the act!"

"No, not really. If I wanted you I could have taken you as soon as you stepped foot in the town. No I let you take it to prove something to Peter," she explained and Wendy blinked.

"What?"

"That all was not lost," she replied softly and motioned to Wendy with a smile. "You hadn't given up on him. You had a chance to walk away, to start a new life but you came back for him. He saw that and I think it gave him hope," she added but her smile flickered like a flame. She was unsure.

"You did it for Peter?" Wendy shook her head incredulously, not wanting to believe her and she leaned down until they were face to face. "I don't believe you."

As her words hissed out Blue gasped and raised a hand to stop her but it was too late. Over the fairy's shoulder a colourful silk tapestry, depicting two fairies in flight, wavered and then grew dim, as if the colour was being sucked out of the fabric. The fairies faded, the silk vanished and the stone wall behind dimpled and then with a whooshing noise was suddenly sucked into a black void.

"Nothingness!" Blue cried out and then grabbed Wendy's hand. "Please believe me, please!"

Shocked and confused Wendy stared at the yawning darkness in the wall, watching the way it seemed to swell and spread like mould, like a dark disease. She nodded vigorously. "I believe you!" she gulped and the Nothingness grew smaller and smaller until the darkness vanished. The stone returned but the tapestry was gone. Blue slumped in her chair, seemingly exhausted and Wendy sat on the end of the bed.

"Never say that here, never say that in this place," she breathed and Wendy shook her head.

"I thought that was just a myth. Tink laughed it off."

"Oh it was but not anymore. There's something you have to know, something very important. It's the reason why I've done the things I've done for so many years. I've never told anyone this…well one other but he's dead now," she sighed sadly and Wendy leaned forward. Blue could spin lies and fantasies but if she did Wendy felt assured she could pick out the threads of truth.

"After you've told me will you take me to Peter?"

"If you wish. You can also leave at any time, the door is open," Blue said, motioning to the hallway and Wendy said nothing. Open doors were sometimes an illusion of freedom. Blue rose to her feet slowly, clearly taking great effort and Wendy fought the compulsion to help her.

_I should be tipping her out of the window. Get a grip on yourself. _

Blue touched the wall with a small, secretive smile and turned to Wendy. "Where do you think we are?"

"The fairy court? Aren't we?"

"Yes but _where_ is that?" she asked, eyes narrowed like a playful school teacher. It was here that Wendy saw traces of Peter. Wendy was stumped.

"Well I don't know exactly where but it's a realm like Neverland and Oz…isn't it?" she asked, unsure as Blue turned back to the wall. She traced her fingers over the bricks.

"Fairies have no realm, not really. This court is the mortar between the bricks," she explained and ran her fingertip down the cement that separated two bricks. "We are the magic keeping the realms together…but also apart," the mortar flaked off and she wiped the chalk from her skin.

Wendy looked at the wall, focusing on the mortar that ran through the entire wall and nodded. "So the court is everywhere?"

"Simultaneously, yes. But as you are intimately aware magic is powered by belief and when that belief dies?" She banged against the wall and with a sudden groan the mortar cracked and the bricks toppled. Wendy gasped as the stones collapsed in a cloud of dust and noise. Wendy felt an intense raw panic seep into her bones, though she could not say why. It was like a dream she once had, a nightmare.

"The realms will fall?"

"Reality itself. It's happening already. The walls between worlds are growing thin and the disbelief is spreading."

"The Nothingness…but I've been to Fantasia and it was fine, I met the ruler," Wendy confided and Blue made a circular motion with her finger.

"It's on a loop. Birth, death, rebirth. Just like Neverland," she added and Wendy felt a prickle of hope, of possibility but squashed it. Blue sat back down in her chair, her skin very pale now.

"You still haven't explained why," Wendy reminded her and Blue nodded. She stared at the bricks at their feet and with a snap of her fingers the wall was intact again, as if it had never been destroyed.

"I knew the total destruction that awaited all of us, I saw the cataclysm and I had to stop it. In those days there were two courts and the rulers at the time were too busy fighting each other to pay attention to me," she said, shaking her head. Wendy imagined she would have sounded bitter once but now she just sounded tired.

"What happened?"

"I came to rule on the grounds that the two courts would be united. I married the young king of the Unseelie court and we ruled together," she spoke softly but her mind was far away, her gaze distant. "He believed me, he saw what had to be done and so we came up with a plan," her voice drifted off and she stared at Wendy sharply, calculating. "Aren't men beasts?"

Wendy's eyebrows rose and she struggled to answer. "I suppose…"

"Fairies live longer than humans but really our lives are just as ephemeral. I knew I would not live long enough to save the court, to save magic so I had to find a way to extend my life. We found a way, me and my king but it came with a great price, as all magic does."

"You connected your life to Neverland?" Wendy had long suspected it.

"Not exactly…" Blue said and then hesitated. She gazed at Wendy deeply, weighting what to say, what to divulge and Wendy was again strongly reminded of Peter. Finally Blue sighed and shrugged. "I suppose there's no harm telling you."

"Telling me what?"

"I bound my life to the Heart of the Truest Believer. I needed power and I needed immortality and I found that in Peter and Neverland. Of course, we both know how that took a turn for the worst," she added with distaste and Wendy felt anger flair up again.

"How dare you! You trapped a little boy, you used him like - like a parasite!" she yelled and Blue nodded, sighing.

"I did. Fairies don't feel as you humans do. We often lack compassion, empathy or mercy but we're not utterly devoid. That was why I was so intrigued by Tinkerbell, she felt so strongly and she still does. I feel that now," she said, looking aside as if in pain and Wendy didn't know what to believe. It could be a trick, even the glimpse of the Nothing could have been fake.

_It wasn't, that was real_, she thought and then pushed it away. Wendy stood and gazed down coldly at Blue.

"I want to see Peter and then we're leaving."

"Of course, you're both free to leave just as you are free to stay. There will be a gathering tonight, in memory of Neverland. You're welcome to come…Peter should be there," she teased and Wendy wanted to roll her eyes. She was not a teenager swayed by dresses and romance.

"How are you still alive? If you bound your heart to Peter's and then Henry's you should be dead because neither of them hold that power now."

"I thought that was obvious. I'm alive because there is another out there. You see where one heart loses faith another replaces it, so the power never truly fades. I can't wait to find out who it is now," she said with an excited grin before frowning, lifting a finger. "I've never bound my _heart_ to another for the simple reason I don't have one. Like I said, aren't men beasts?" she smiled, a horribly sharp but wounded thing and Wendy turned away, suddenly acutely aware that she did not have ownership of her own heart either.

As a fairy-nun wheeled Blue out of the room Wendy wondered whose heart Peter had pulled out and crushed all those years ago and if the owner was a beast.

* * *

The court was in fact a palace, a huge sprawling estate and Wendy considered that it likely never ends, if the fairy realm really was the magic glue between worlds. As soon as she was left alone Wendy had gripped the thimble in her hand and followed it to Peter's location but as the thimble flared hot in her grip it grew faint, as if Peter was avoiding her. Wendy walked and walked, running up and down staircases and bending over balconies until she became utterly lost.

"Fantastic," she sighed and leaned against a doorway. The windows showed an expanse of stars but she had found a way out to a gigantic cavern. A large, white stone staircase lead to an odd harbour where a channel of water snacked along a winding trough suspended in the air, big enough for a single manned boat. It disappeared into darkness and the rough walls stretched up and up before disappearing. A platter of grapes were beside the doorway and she plucked some into her mouth greedily. She was starving. She could see flashes of light - pinks, greens and yellows, miniature fairies she thought and as she watched more and more appeared. Blue had said there would be a gathering and it appeared they were arriving. Feeling exposed Wendy jumped down the staircase and hid under it. As the fairies appeared they grew larger with a pop, their insect like wings flashing. They were greeted by the more demure fairy nuns, who showed them into the palace.

Though childish delights were burned out of her long ago she could not subdue a tingle of pleasure at the sight of the guests, at their beautiful gowns and glowing wings. She knew from Tink most of it was glamour but for some fairies it was not needed, it came naturally. As music began to play and the last of the guests were shown in Wendy stood. She was hungry, incredibly thirsty and lost. She could call for help but she didn't want assistance, she wanted to see one person and one person only. She gripped the thimble in her hand. It pulsed, as if he was drawing close and then backing away.

"I never took you for a coward," she said to the air and heard a distinct snort of derision from above her. She looked up at the balcony but no one was there. Wendy loosened her grip on the thimble and sighed. "I'm in no mood for games Peter."

"That makes two of us."

Wendy spun around and gasped. Peter was leaning against the doorway, his shadow spilling over the steps towards her. He was no longer dressed in the greens she was used to but a white shirt, a studded vest, brown breeches and black boots. Over his arm was a red, heavily detailed patchwork cloak. It was his Pied Piper outfit and as he came down the stairs he slotted his pipes into his belt. She had seen him dressed like this once before, he called it his "hunting" gear.

She wanted to run to him, wanted to throw her arms around him but something made her stop. He was pale, his eyes red rimmed but aside from his pallor he appeared well. What was off putting was the look in his eyes, or rather the lack of one. They were completely void, there was no anger, no sadness, no cruel joy or mirth. His green eyes were like two gems, pretty but giving nothing back.

"What's wrong?" Wendy breathed as he stopped some distance from her. He looked up, staring at her and she thought she saw a flash of pain in his gaze but then he shrugged, impassive.

"Nothing, everything," his mouth smirked slightly before he sighed. "What are you doing here Wendy?"

"What am I doing here? Why do you think!?" she asked and gripped at the cloak slung over his arm. She strained not to get any closer. He stiffened but did not move. Wendy stared into his face, shocked at how looking at him, being in his presence, affected her. She had spent so much of her life with him that being apart was like missing part of herself. Liveable but not easy but now she felt complete.

Peter shook his head, his mouth sneering but there was no anger in his eyes. "You should leave, you're wasting your time."

"What?!" she pulled at the cloak until she ripped it out of his arms and flung it to the floor. "I came here, knowing full well that you chose the island over me, you chose power over me and yet I'm here!"

Peter laughed, a horrible hollow sound that echoed. "You're _dedicated_, I'll give you that. Oh Wendy, all those years with me, look how they've twisted you, made you so _obedient_. Like a whipped dog returning to its master."

Her slap crackled through the air and he staggered back, his pale cheek growing red. "Never! I know you're saying these things to hurt me, to make me leave but more fool you! I was going to leave with or without you! As if I would walk back to you after what you did. No, that time is over. If you want me, if you really want a life together you make that change, you make that effort and follow me and leave all this behind."

He rubbed at his face, eyes tearing with pain. "Start afresh? Follow you to Storybrooke?"

"Or London," Wendy breathed hard and fast, chest heaving. She wanted to go home. She tried to get a grip on her emotions but they were wild, the heart beating in her chest pounding. She wanted to walk away, she wanted to find that door to Storybrooke and never look back but a huge part wanted to grab Peter and drag him back with her.

"What does it matter where I stay? I have no home now. Neverland is gone," Peter whispered and sat on the stairs. He looked defeated and sounded empty. After an unsure moment Wendy sat down next to him. He had no heart but he must feel the loss of the island more acutely than anyone else. It must be like his losing his heart all over again.

"Yes…but I think it could come back. The Never Bird is a phoenix, she'll rise from the ashes again."

"It can't come back, not like it was. I don't have that power anymore…" he rubbed at his face and then gazed at Wendy. "You should leave me, you should go. I ruined your life, you know it but now you can leave. I don't have a heart, I can't love you and if I can't love I can finally let you go. Who thought I'd ever say that? " It was a soft question but again she was uncomfortable with how empty he was.

"You do love me, even without a heart. The seas raged and the skies split apart when I was on the plank. That was all you, I think you can feel with your soul sometimes. Take your heart back Peter," she urged, knowing it would bring life back into his eyes. Peter shook his head as she tapped at her chest.

"No, I don't want to feel anything ever again. Emotions are a weakness. Anyway, I might not have need of it anymore. Blue has a plan," he teased and Wendy frowned at him.

"You've sided with her? After everything she did? She told me about this realm, about its importance but I don't -"

"She was telling you the truth," he injected. "I was always told that I had to save magic but I thought it meant Neverland but it's more than that. She wants to make it up to me," he said and his words dripped with sarcasm. Wendy leaned closer to him, voice low.

"You don't trust her do you? What is she planning?"

"Haven't you ever wondered why _Storybrooke_ of all places? Why that particular Earth? Out of all the worlds it's the one with the strongest belief, the one where we are all stories. Imagine that world with magic, magic everywhere. Imagine the belief generated from that..." he trailed off, looking hungry. "She's growing stronger so the next Truest Believer is out there, possibly waiting to be born," he explained and Wendy experienced a flash of insight and in that moment she knew exactly who it was. Wendy kept her face blank but leaned closer to him as he spoke. "You see she bound her soul to my heart and then Henry's. Every time the Truest Believer is conceived she grows in power and that sustains the fairy realm and by extension the universe. She kept me in Neverland, where I never aged and that's why she's lived for so long, why she's not dead," he added dryly and Wendy nodded. She wondered why he hadn't killed her the moment he saw an opportunity.

"If she dies then magic might fade…Unless someone takes her place, I suppose" Wendy mused. "It doesn't feel right. She's getting away with everything she has done. She should pay."

"What do you propose?" he joked but there was a glimmer of something wicked in his eyes and Wendy inhaled sharply.

"You _are_ planning something aren't you?! I knew you wouldn't side with her really," she felt a surge of excitement and interest but one look in his eyes dissolved those feelings.

"I could also form a bond to the Truest Believer myself, not just take the heart but link my soul to it forever. That's what Blue wants but ultimately _I_ could take her place. I could wield power again, make a new Neverland," he cupped her face, titling his head. "You and me."

Wendy stared at him, imagining it but it seemed a nightmare wrapped up like a dream. A power hungry, heartless Peter? She did not want Neverland, new or otherwise. She did not want to spend centuries in a tug of war for power and agency with Peter. She had had enough.

"That's your decision. It's not mine and I don't want any part in it," she said firmly and rose to her feet. Peter shot up and grabbed her arm.

"I can get rid of her!"

"Maybe you can and I hope you do but you're not the ruler of this place Peter."

"How can you sound so sure?" he dropped her arm, looking unimpressed.

"Because a seer told me. I know who the next ruler is and I'll tell you now I'll make sure that she is protected until her time comes. You were failed and so was Henry but I won't make that mistake with her. You can help me do that, you can finally make the choice to do some good or you can stay here in another scrabble for power. You lost Peter, and it's time to admit that and move on."

Wendy began walking away, fighting the need to cry when he pulled her around and gathered her up in his arms. She had been fighting so hard not to give in, not to be weak but as he pressed his face against her hair, pulling her up against him she felt as if her heart had melted under the pressure and seeped into every fibre of her body.

"I love you, I do love you," she whispered into his ear and his arms tightened around her. "I don't want you to become my enemy. Please come home with me Peter," she begged and he finally lifted his head. He gazed at her and as she watched a spark of warmth entered his eyes and grew until he was staring at her with a fierce and consuming love.

"You're not my enemy. You're all I have, you're the only thing that makes sense…but I have to see this through to the end," he added seriously and Wendy was left wondering what he really meant. He pulled against her hips, moving closer and she breathed rapidly. He brushed his lips against her cheek and then to the corner of her mouth. "Stay the night. Dance with me. Stay."

"You missed my birthday," she muttered, head feeling light and oddly fuzzy and as the stars began to spin around her she wondered faintly if she had been put under a spell but the doubt was swallowed by music, laugher and the intoxicating feel of his mouth on hers.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_Don't eat fairy food ;)_

_Sorry for the wait, I've been quite ill for awhile. Anywho I hope you liked this. More to come :)_


	13. Chapter 13

Ninety seven years ago Wendy celebrated her birthday in tunnels under the rubble of a bombed out London with cheery, strange people. For many years she toyed with the question if the odd and magical night had really happened or if it had been a dream. Not because she doubted the magic that seemed to pulse around her but the possibility that she had really been that happy once. Almost a hundred years later she was hit with that uncertainty again but this time it was because it was too magical to be real.

Everything was a blur, her mind a whirling carousel of lights, music and laughter. After their embrace Wendy had been pulled out of his arms by the sound of music and the strange, leaping current that was sweeping through her blood. Never had she felt so free, so wild and all the worries and disappointments faded as her body was flooded with the most intoxicating substance, the lingering tingle of it still on her tongue.

The fairy gathering was not a wake for a sunk island, there were no eulogies or laments. It wasn't even a party, it was an orgy. She danced and danced until she couldn't stand, until she was being pulled around in circles, the tips of her boots sliding against the shiny floor. She was pushed upright and flung to the next dancer and she did not care. She was celebrating the destruction of her home, of her prison and she would do it with a grin. But soon every rational thought disappeared as she grabbed a goblet filled with water and drank thirstily.

Glamour glittered over everything and soon it brushed off on her, fooling her eyes and tricking her mind until she was no longer dressed for the cold of Storybrooke but sweeping along the floor in a white gown that sparkled with jewels, her hair gathered up in pearls and feathers. It was almost bridal.

_Peter…_

The name lashed through her mind, like a cry of someone drowning and she had an impression of a young man watching her like an angry hawk, trying to get to her but then she was twirled away and he was gone. Some tiny, closed off part of her mind knew that something was terribly wrong, knew that her mind could not sustain what it was enduring for much longer. Like in Neverland time in the court was abnormal but at least on the island it was always the same. Here it leaped like a hare or suddenly crawled until she had no idea if it was day or night. As she was spun to the edge of the dance floor she was grabbed and ripped away from the clinging dancers. A pair of angry green eyes peered into her face and she tried to place him.

"You ate the food, didn't you?"

"Peter!" she cried, smiling dreamily. She felt drunk but this intoxication was like nothing she had experienced. The need for excitement and fun stared to blend into something far more carnal. She gazed up at him, her lips curling as she ran a hand down his chest and flicked her fingers against his belt buckle.

"Humans shouldn't be here, _you_ shouldn't be here. I bet Blue wanted this to happen," he grabbed her wrist, breathing hard and her smile widened.

"You wanted me to stay the night," she breathed and pressed herself against him. Why she should not, why she should be pushing him away and demanding to be shown the way home was just a faint echo across her mind. She wanted him and she knew he wanted her.

Peter sighed, breath playing over her face and he leaned down but stopped, hesitating. He then swooped down and kissed her forehead roughly before he picked her up. Wendy was half carried from the hall and the loss of the music, the fairies and even more the food was a physical blow. But gradually, with that distraction gone, she focused on Peter with a hot and hungry need.

Legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck she kissed his face, pressing her hot mouth to his but he suddenly dropped her and she bounced onto a bed. They were in the chamber Wendy woke up in earlier. He stood staring down at her, trying to control his breathing as she sat up on her knees and gripped his belt again, pulling him closer until his legs hit the bed.

"Have you missed me?"

"You know I have…you're enchanted right now Wendy, you do realise that?"

She batted the comment away, unconcerned. She leaned up and kissed the underside of his jaw and he started to breathe very heavily, his fists curling. Those without a heart all succumb to the need to feel _something_ and sexual gratification was the surest route to that. It was a momentary release but for just a moment the heartless feel a flood of pleasure.

Peter would call that weak but now he wavered.

As Wendy pressed her mouth to the corner of his mouth he growled and pushed her back down onto the bed. Hair fanned out in curls around her head she watched him crawl up beside her, hook his arm around her body and then pull her further up the bed with him. Back to him Wendy turned her head, beginning to feel frustrated.

"You're going to sleep," he said firmly and she whined. It was a pitiful sound and if she was in her right mind she would feel ashamed but right at that moment she writhed and groaned, body rubbing against him and he inhaled sharply as her hand snaked back between them. He was hard and she wanted to feel him in her hand but she couldn't unbuckle his belt. Peter moaned and pulled her hand away, grabbed the other and pushed her hands down with his own until they were trapped between their legs. She mewed, burying her face into the pillow as she grinded back against him, making him pant and swear until he pressed his mouth against her bare shoulder until he couldn't take it anymore and bit her.

Wendy had no clue how long this lasted for but when she finally sank into sleep Peter was all but lying on her back and as her body relaxed he slumped in relief. She did not know if he slept at all that night but when she awoke some time later with a gentle but persistent hunger he pulled her back and she slept again, too tired to argue.

* * *

Next morning she woke to find her jeans and sweater flung over a chair, leaving her in a lace trimmed vest and knickers. She must have undressed during the night. She turned to find Peter asleep beside her. It was such a normal sight that for a moment she thought she was back in Neverland.

He did not sleep peacefully, he never did and Wendy leaned down to brush his hair back from his forehead, noting the way it was furrowed. She knew the things that plagued his dreams, the nightmares and terrible memories but she thought he dreamed of something else now. Losing the island…or losing her? Leaning over him she became aware of a strange sensation. It was not a hangover, she did not fell groggy or sore but quite the opposite. She felt energised but in the aching core of that feeling was a ravenous need. She wanted more of that wonderful fruit. As Peter stirred in the middle of his nightmare Wendy sat up and attempted to get out of bed when she was pulled back down.

"I know what you want. No more," he said tiredly and Wendy opened her mouth to argue when he placed a finger to her lips. "You eat anymore and you won't be able to leave. It offers no nutrition to humans, you'll eat and eat and wither away. It's like a drug. Surely you know the dangers of eating fairy food?"

"I was hungry," she replied, starting to feel ashamed. She didn't think of the consequences.

"No more of it, not even water."

The events of the night before whirled about her head and she tried to make sense of it but it was useless. It was like a fragmented dream but she remembered vividly how aroused she felt, how much she wanted him and how doggedly he rebuffed her.

"You took care of me," she said and he cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Why do you sound surprised?"

"You don't have a heart, I didn't think you'd care," she said and rose from the bed and Peter sat up with her. He sighed, running a hand through his hair as she got dressed. As she sat on the edge of the bed to pull on her boots he moved to sit beside her and she looked at him, battling the need to cry.

"You can't stay here Wendy," he said gently and she shook her head angrily.

"But you can? I suppose the food doesn't affect you because you're not wholly human," the words had a bite to them but he just stared at her with a hollow gaze.

"You're right I'm not. Even as a child I grew acclimatised to it," he explained and then stared at the opposite wall. "Since coming here, since the island was destroyed I've started to remember things from my past. I remember you."

Wendy swallowed, not liking the look in his eyes. "What do you remember?"

"You left me, you slept with me and then you left without a goodbye. Because you left I played the pipes and made myself forget. I forgot you and Blue and everything. I'd never felt so hurt…" he said and then smirked. "That's why I don't want my heart back, it's only a liability."

"Am I a liability to you? Is that what I am? I think I must be," she turned away, feeling a rolling awful bitterness and misery but then jerked when he took hold of her hand.

"No you're not but someone else is," he whispered and leaned close to her. "I'm not staying here to hurt you, or because I blame you for what happened. I can only get back at Blue if I'm close to her and I can't do that if you're here. Once she's gone I can fill the void she'll leave…and you'll be safe. Don't you see? The ball was a message, she can hurt you without even trying."

"And what about you? She knows you want her dead. She could kill you."

Peter shook his head. "She's had ample opportunity to do that. No she's convinced she's invincible…" he said and stared at the wall, deep in thought and Wendy gazed down at their clasping hands. At that moment a sharp pain flared through her and her eyes stung.

"I feel like this is the last time I'll ever see you again," she whispered and he tilted his head as she started to cry softly.

"Not if I win."

"There's nothing to win Peter!" she snapped and got to her feet. She was in pain, confused and angry but below that was a craving she could barely ignore. Peter was right, she had to leave but she ached to leave him behind. He picked the island over her, watched her fall from the ship and sink but a part of her always knew he would. His problem was he thought he could have both but now he has neither.

The betrayal washed over her again and she could not bear to look at him anymore. She wrenched open the doorway and ran out, Peter at her heels but as she quickly approached a platter of velvet skinned peaches she slowed, the craving obliterating any other feeling. As her hand snaked out Peter grabbed her and dragged her away as she struggled and cursed him.

Panting and half delirious she was pushed against a wall as Peter flung open a door and Wendy realised he had led her to the convent. Battling down the ravenous craving Wendy focused on him and realised that this was it.

"If you're really going to pick power over me _again_ then I don't want this anymore," she said, trying to keep her head up as she placed a hand against her chest. It was a touch that conveyed his heart but also the old thimble around her neck. She thought she saw a flash of hurt in his eyes but it was merely a reflection of the morning light.

"I don't want it."

"You're a coward," she spat and he blinked and then laughed.

"Tell me, how much are you hurting right now? You're in agony and you want me to feel that?"

"YES!" she shouted and pushed him away. "That's what you're scared of! You're scared of actually feeling for once in your life!"

"No," he said softly, shaking his head and his shoulders slumped as he looked at her cannily. "You think I'll suddenly become a good person? You think I'd love you the way you deserve?"

"Yes, Peter," she whispered and moved to him, staring into his glaring eyes. "I can feel your heart. There's darkness there but so much capacity for more, for goodness," she said with feeling and he laughed again. He lifted hand and tapped his temple.

"And what about here? You think a shiny clean heart will rub away centuries of the things I've done? That rot has taken root and there's no getting rid of it. That's me, that's who I am and I'm not a good person, clean heart or no. Why waste it on me?"

Wendy stared at him, seeing the honest question in his eyes and felt oddly light. He voiced something that she long had been asking herself. What's a clean heart if you still commit bad deeds? She had participated in the kidnapping and attempted murder of Henry Mills and she had no cursed heart as an excuse.

"You're right," she said, smiling faintly and he lifted his head in surprise. "No one will understand me as well as you. We are what we are…but that doesn't mean we can't change Peter. I can't stay here but you can come with me, either way this heart belongs to you. Take it and come away or say goodbye," she finished, tears gleaming in her eyes again and he shook his head.

"I can't. I don't want you to go," he gripped her arms and pulled her to him and held her tightly. Wendy buried her face against his chest and heard the slow steady beat of his heart and in that moment she gripped the tiny golden grain of sand in her hand and wished, not caring what the price of that magic would be.

_Let Peter feel with his whole heart!_

With a brilliant burst of golden light Wendy and Peter staggered apart, shielding their eyes from the glare. As the light faded from Peter's chest he watched as Wendy collapsed to the ground, her face pale and wane.

"No!" he cried and got down on his knees. She was breathing but raggedly and he quickly gathered her up into his arms and ran for the door the leads to Storybrooke. Bursting into another realm Peter skidded to a stop as a large crowd gathered on a green lawn rounded on him and with a cry they ambushed.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_Hmm I wonder what the price is..._

_Thanks for reading! Just to let you know there won't be many more chapters to go now._


	14. Chapter 14

Hands attempted to rip Wendy out of his arms but with a wild and involuntary pulse of magic Peter slammed them back. He no longer had the power of the Truest Believer but with his heart returned to him he was not without magic, even weak and ill-used. Michael, John and the Lost Boys stirred on the ground as Emma, Regina and Neal jumped to their feet.

"Her heart! Give me her heart!" he demanded but Michael could hear the sincere desperation in his voice. There was no mockery there, just pure worry and without a second thought he pulled the bag that John had been carrying around every day and offered Wendy's heart to Pan.

He snatched the dimming organ out of his hands and, dropping to his knees, he replaced her heart gently. Wendy lay prone on the cold ground, her skin pale and oddly tight over her bones but with a sharp gasp she convulsed, eyes snapping open and stared around wildly. Peter visibly slumped in relief. Michael shared a glance with his brother and as one they grabbed Peter and hurled him to his feet.

"What did you do?!" John yelled, shaking Peter and if the situation wasn't so serious Michael would have laughed. Pan blinked in shock, as if he had never been so manhandled before. He probably hadn't. Neal and Emma bent down to help Wendy stand, who was quickly getting her bearings. Seeing not just her brothers but the freed Lost Boys rounding on Peter she broke away from Neal and pulled them away roughly.

"What are you doing?" she yelled and Michael turned to her and pulled her into a hug.

"We thought he had taken you again! You've been gone for weeks!"

"What? But it was just a night…" she shook her head, not comprehending. She looked up at the cloudy sky and realised just how cold it was, the red and brown leaves now littering the ground. Autumn was giving way to winter. Peter started to nod grimly, staring back at the convent.

"Time works differently in the court. Blue's doing no doubt, show of her power," he looked back and stared at the boys who had once followed his every cruel whim but who were now casting him disdainful glares. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. Me," he said in a soft but firm voice that used to spread fear throughout the following like ice but they sneered even more.

"We're done taking orders from you," one of the boys said, a tall dark haired youth. Michael knew that his twin had died on the island and he had been the first boy to renounce Pan. After him they all followed like a crumbling wall, all except Felix. "You said we were on that island to help you save magic but that was all lies. We scarified so much for you and you didn't even care if we lived or died."

"That's not true," Peter said softly but it was unconvincing.

"What's my name?" he asked roughly and then smiled horribly when Peter could not respond. "It's Edward and my brother was called Nibs. We followed you for two hundred years but no more."

Peter said nothing, just stared at him through narrowed eyes, staring the boy down until Edward's eyes flickered in the first show of fear and he stood back. Peter's mouth sneered but it fell when he noticed Regina smirking at him, her hands crackling with power. Everyone gathered around Peter moved away hastily, everyone but Wendy.

"I'd move aside if I were you," Regina said, her eyes gleaming with wicked violence as Pan was brought down to his knees by her magic. Wendy held out her hands, pleading.

"Don't kill him!"

"He kept you prisoner and you're defending him?" the queen said scornfully, shaking her head and Wendy's arms lowered.

"He did and worse but you'll have to kill me because I'm not stepping aside. He – he has a clean heart now, a chance to start over and make amends. Don't take that life away from him," she pleaded, staring at Emma who had said nothing. Now she looked up and shook her head.

"He would have killed our son," she said quietly and Wendy lowered her head. "If we let him go where's the justice in that?"

"You're right, he should answer for what he did but you're all hypocrites if you do. You live and love amongst killers, tyrants and worse and yet they're free to live as they please," Wendy said and for the first time Michael truly saw her for the age she actually was. His sister appeared small and fragile, often alluded to as a bird but she was so much more dangerous than that, she's had to be.

"That's different," Regina began, lowering her hands but Wendy cut across her.

"It's only different in that you all had a chance to be redeemed, to work for forgiveness but you won't allow him that. He's lost everything, he has little power left…he's no threat to you anymore," she stressed. Michael stared at Pan, who had his head lowered throughout her speech and prayed that she was right.

"He hasn't lost everything, he still has you," Edward said and Wendy cast a flinty gaze at him that soon turned sad.

"No, he doesn't," she whispered and hearing this Peter slowly lifted his head and stared in torment at Wendy's back but said nothing. Emma moved towards Wendy, face harsh and set and whispered low.

"I believe in second chances, I've seen it happen but he doesn't get that opportunity _here_. He has until daybreak to leave Storybrooke and I never want to see him again. If he's still here he's going back in the box and he's never getting out, I'll make sure of it. He hurt my son, he's lucky he's even breathing," she cast a wrathful look down at Pan, who could not look her in the eye, and turned to go.

"Where will I go?" he asked, the first thing he had spoken in minutes.

Emma shrugged as she walked away. "Not my problem," she answered bluntly.

"You know what _will_ be your problem? Blue. She's gathered the greatest source of power in one place and soon she'll come for you all - but what do _I_ care? I'll be gone by morning…" Peter said coldly as Emma and the others ignored him and walked away, leaving Neal, Michal and John.

Neal took Wendy's hand and smiled. "You can walk away now and don't look back," he said and started to gently pull her away from Peter. Wendy's hand slipped out of his and she shook her head.

"I won't be guided Bae, remember? I'll make my own choice," she said gently and he looked disappointed but hugged her before turning away and walking after Emma. Once he was out of sight Wendy turned back to Peter who was still on his knees and after a long, taut silence she offered her hand to him.

"Get up and come with me."

Peter stared at her fingers, head tilting and with a barely audible sigh he took her hand and she helped him to his feet.

* * *

One night, one night to decide the rest of her life. Wendy watched Peter pacing up and down before the window like a captured animal before she told him to sit. They were in the apartment above the seers clothes shop, in the room she sleeps in. When he entered the building the seers had opened their arms to him but Peter had been rooted to the spot, not knowing how to respond and with an intelligible noise he brushed past them and Wendy led him to her room.

He focused on anything within the bedroom, picking up little ornaments and flicking through books, anything to distract himself from the heart now pounding in his chest. Wendy knew the depth of what he can feel, having owned his heart, but she could cope with it, she could process and express a variety of emotions. Peter knew passion, he knew joy and anger but never to this extent and he was floundering.

"Why won't you look at me?" she asked suddenly, sitting on the edge of the bed and he paused at the window, touching the net curtain.

"I can't…" he muttered, flicking a glance at her before focusing on the street below.

"Can't or won't?"

"Does it matter?" he replied coldly and Wendy bit her lip.

"Peter…I don't know what will happen tomorrow, I don't know what I will do half an hour from now! The future is…well what it should be: undefinable."

"It's not that! You have no idea what I'm feeling right now…I can't stand it," he confessed, sounding breathless and Wendy's mouth thinned.

"Well boohoo! Welcome to my world! You can blame me all you want but I'm glad you have a heart, maybe now you can finally start using it!" she almost yelled and he finally looked at her, a searing and intense look that pinned her to the bed and when he suddenly lunged forward she could only gasp.

"Use it for what? Pain? Because that's all I feel! I have no home, no family and no friends. If you go I've got _nothing_ but this!" he gripped her shoulders, staring fiercely into her eyes.

"So you'll rip it out again?" she accused him in disgust and his fingers tightened once before relaxing.

"What use do I have for a heart that feels this strongly if you're not there?" he asked gently and Wendy sighed softly, shaking her head. She cupped his face.

"I didn't give you your heart back solely because I wanted your love. I did it to save you. This is about more than us, this about starting afresh Peter. You can begin again, you can try," she gazed at him fiercely and felt a great surge of love and pity as he shook his head in defeat.

"That's the thing. I only know how to want, how to take. I don't know what to do or how to be. You're the only thing I'm sure about," he confessed and she didn't want her feelings to soar but they did.

"We'll figure it out," she whispered and his eyebrow cocked.

"We?"

But before Wendy could answer the door burst open and Tink ran in, panting and red cheeked. Looking at her Wendy could see truthfully that it had been at least a month. The fairy was showing already, her pregnancy accelerating at a greater speed than a human's. Shadowing the doorway like a scarecrow was Felix who at the sight of Peter offered rare and genuine smile.

"Wendy!" Tink yelled and hugged her tightly. "I knew you hadn't run off!"

"Run off?" Wendy asked as Tink leaned back. She was flushed and glowing and for a fairy that was quite a sight. She was luminous. No wonder Felix was following her around like a moth.

"After I escaped with the box we went to the town to warn them. We confronted Blue and the others but they played it sweet and innocent. She said that you and Peter had left for another realm. The others swallowed it but me and your brothers knew it was a lie. What happened?"

"Well – I uh…" she felt too embarrassed to tell her so Peter explained and though having a heart pained him he seemed to relish the way her face heated. Tink nodded, thankfully only smirking a little.

"You're lucky Wendy, you could have been stuck there for good." Tink moved to sit in an armchair, looking thoughtful. "It's funny. I've wanted to be part of the court again for so long but now that want is growing less and less. I was so determined to fit back in again but that's impossible. We're all different," she uttered softly and everyone in the room nodded.

"How – how are you?" Peter asked and Tink started at him in shock before answering.

"I'm okay…actually I've never felt better," she said, hand on her bump and his eyes lingered there. Wendy could not tell what he was thinking or feeling, his face blank. Finally he managed the tinniest smile before he looked at Felix.

"You're not going to challenge me to a sword fight are you? Mutiny is so tedious, now I know how Hook must feel," he joked but Felix stared at him seriously.

"You never have to question my loyalty."

"But the island, everything we worked towards is gone," he said and his voice was laced with a mixture of fury and sadness. Felix smiled and looked Peter in the eye.

"I never stayed on the island for glory or a reward. I stayed because I'm your friend."

Peter offered a wavering smile and clasped Felix's shoulder. "Then you're an idiot," he muttered good-naturedly and Felix smirked.

"I may be sick," Tink quipped and Wendy smiled happily, feeling oddly touched. But as Tink struggled to get back up to her feet, Peter lending a hand, she felt a wave of coldness sweep over her. Tink was in danger and she had no idea.

"Have you been in contact with the fairies since I've been gone? With Blue?" she asked gingerly and Tink nodded, frowning at Wendy's hesitant question. Peter gazed at her thoughtfully.

"Yeah, with sister Astrid. I haven't seen Blue directly, only from afar. Why?"

"Oh maybe they don't know yet, maybe there's still time," she said hopefully.

"Time for what?" Tink asked, getting worried.

"For you to escape. You heard what Lucy said, she saw that your daughter would one day rule the court but I think it's more than that. I think your child is the next Truest Believer and Blue will stop at nothing to get her," Wendy said and a hush fell upon the room. Felix quickly glanced around, as if looking for eavesdroppers while Wendy held Tink's hand. Peter stared with an odd expression, blank in the way a blasted field is but soon his eyes started to cloud over and he looked aside.

"I – I knew something wasn't right but I never imagined…" Tink whispered faintly and then snapped out of her shock. "I'll have to leave, me and Killian."

"You must! If she finds out…" Wendy stared at her anxiously. Blue sought out children with the truest belief, using their power and longevity, but what would she do with such a child destined to _replace_ her? Tink's jaw clenched, clearing thinking the same thing Wendy was.

"She'll never stop looking for us, for her," the fairy's hands curled into fists and her eyes blazed. "She'll face a fight!"

"Yes, she will," Peter said finally and with an odd smile he pulled something out from under his waistcoat and offered it to Tink.

"Is…is that my wand?" she blinked, trembling hand outstretched for the green length of wood, hardly able to believe it. It had been taken from her when she was banished and her wings destroyed by Blue.

"I thought you might like it back," Peter said and as Tink finally griped her long lost wand a wave of magic throbbed out from the fairy, the light green and dazzling. When it faded Tink stared teary eyed at Peter who looked deeply uncomfortably with the swelling adoration in her eyes.

"You stole it back for me?"

"You didn't think I stayed there just moping around did you?" Peter cajoled as they all grinned in happiness. Wendy caught his gaze and he could not look away.

"Did you take anything else? What's your plan?" she asked and he playfully leaned forward and tapped her nose. Sometimes on the island there were days when the darkness surrounding Peter rolled back like clouds from the sun and it seemed they had only ever been happy. It felt like that then but the odd, rare joy that floated around them started to fade away as the reality of the situation hit them. They had a fight on their hands, even if the town did not believe them.

"What can we do to make them believe us?" Wendy asked and Felix shrugged.

"Why should we bother? If they're not willing to listen then they're bringing it down on their own heads. We should get as far away from this realm as possible," he said but Wendy knew it was mostly directed at Tink.

"I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm not exactly fond of this place or it's people," Peter said dryly, ignoring the scathing look on Wendy's face. "But if Blue does what I think she's going to do no realm will be safe."

"How can you be so sure?" Wendy demanded.

"Because every realm will become the court. None of us will escape. I lost Neverland and I've got nothing but the people in this room and she won't take you away from me. I want her worse than dead," he finished in a voice clipped and harsh but his eyes were fixed on Wendy. He had an almost clean heart, he could love and show compassion but the possessiveness in his gaze was just as familiar and just as strong as it had ever been.

* * *

As the sun set and the inhabitants of Storybrooke went home after a day's work Wendy sat on the window seat in Michael's room. Peter was down stairs finally speaking to the sisters, something he wanted to do alone. John had left with Tiger Lily to speak to Jefferson about returning home. Getting back to London was not as simple as buying a ticket and getting on the next plane. They were in the wrong realm, the wrong Earth.

"I'm not going," Michael said softly and Wendy turned to look at him.

"You want to stay here?"

"I think I do. I've been travelling from one place to the next, from one realm to another but I can stop now. I've been talking to Lucy and she thinks she can get me a job at the school."

Wendy smiled. "Mr Darling the teacher. History?"

"And languages," he added pompously and they laughed. He leaned closer, grin fading into something softer. "Of course it's not just the job. I'm rather fond of Lucy."

"I noticed. I'm so happy for you, for you and John. I think our rigid brother would go to the ends of the earth for Lily. I never thought I'd see something like that from him," she admitted and Michael titled his head.

"It was always there, he's just channeling that intensity in a more healthy way now. That's all I wanted for him, for you too," he added gently and Wendy sat back with a half-smile on her face. "What will you do next Wend?"

"I've been thinking, toying with an idea, but nothing is set in stone. Honestly I don't want to jinx it, especially now. Planning for the future is a bit premature isn't it? We still have Blue to deal with," she reminded him and he sat back with a sigh in the armchair.

"Always someone to deal with. Wish they could just leave us alone but I suppose that's not us, is it? Darlings never back down."

"Too right," she agreed and leaned up to switch on a lamp. As she did a cramping pain shot through her stomach and she sat back down with a wince.

"You all right?"

"Yes. Ever since I got back I've had a stomachache. Stress I suppose," she said but in truth she was worried. She had never experienced a pain like it, at least not that she could remember. There was a bottle of pain killers in her room. As the painful cramps continued Wendy got to her feet, fingers digging into her sides, but she smiled when Michael kissed her forehead.

"Feel better…what about Peter? He can't be here by morning," he said seriously and Wendy turned to him at the door.

"I know but I think if they won't listen he's the only hope this town has. Good night dearest," she said and closed the door quietly, the ache in her guts growing intense.

Peter was sat by the window when Wendy came in and slumped down on the bed with a groan. As she curled into a ball, starting to sweat Peter moved to sit on the end of the bed, staring at her.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing. Fetch me that bottle in the drawer," she waved her hand at the cabinet beside the bed and he gave her a sardonic smirk before doing as she asked. He measured out the pills for her and handed her a glass of water. To any it would be deeply surprising but then not many had been witness to Peter and Wendy alone. Even on the edge of splitting apart their years together leant them a familiarity that would never fade.

"Better?" he asked, putting the glass and pills back. Wendy groaned again and buried her face into the pillow, curling tighter in on herself.

"Will you help them Peter?" she asked as he leaned down and brushed strands of hair away from her flushed face.

"If I'm not gone by morning they're going to kill me or entrap me. By rights I should leave and not look back but I know I can't. I need them to help me destroy her and to do that they have to believe me."

Wendy smiled and brushed her fingertips against his chest. "I think this is working after all."

Peter rolled his eyes, grabbed her hand and stared at her intensely. "I care _nothing_ for them…I may feel a little bad about Henry but the rest? I honestly don't care if they live or die, excluding certain people."

"This is why they won't believe you Peter. Why should they listen to someone who cares so little for them?"

"I'm only extending them the same courtesy," he responded and Wendy held her tongue. She wouldn't have been able to speak even if she wanted to as another cramping pain rolled through her. She clutched the pillow and swore.

"I feel like a giant hand is squeezing my insides," she complained and his hands hovered over her, not sure how to comfort. He settled for gently patting her arm before moving to lie down next to her. Wendy was in too much pain to argue and his proximity did bring with it a certain comfort.

"If I win…If _we_ win," he corrected, "what will you do? What – what happens to us?"

Wendy stared at his face for a long time before answering, noting the way he held his breath, the apprehension in his gaze. Before that gaze would hold a restrained anger and then a smirk to hide his hurt but now everything was changed.

"You were willing to sacrifice my life for your dreams and I can't forgive that, not yet. I can't be with you, not right now. I want the chance to live exactly as I want, to be truly free to make my own decisions. You think you gave me that later on but in truth you never did. I knew if I ran you'd come for me, not matter what I might want. That's all changed now, do you understand?"

"You want a normal life? You think that's possible for someone like you?" he challenged quietly, choosing to ignore her words and she felt a blow. Did she really expect him to say sorry for what he had done to her? Might as well expect the moon to sing.

"I never said normal, I said free. I know I can never be like that, go back to a mundane reality because that's impossible. I know the truth and it's changed me forever. Not living with you will be hard," she admitted and then smiled weakly. "In truth I'm terrified. I can't even sleep without you next to me but I have to try, I owe that to myself. _You_ owe me that."

Peter gazed at her without blinking, clearly troubled but finally, after so many years, he relented. "If you wish it…but not forever? I have to see you."

"Until I say otherwise," she said, sounding like a queen and he managed a weak smile. Wendy was aching, an escalating torment that she wanted to rise above but she could not. She knew her decision was the right one but it was still painful.

"I should sleep somewhere else," he said and she felt a plummeting panic at the prospect. Her decision was final but she didn't want to be far from him.

"We have until the morning," she said, pulling him back down and she caught the soft smirk on his face. Was it manipulation or not? She could not say but she wanted to believe it was not. She touched his chest and stared into his eyes. "You'll have to come with me to London, _our_ London," she emphasised and he frowned, looking angry.

"You want us to go separate ways but still force me to be near you?"

"Would you rather the alternative?" she asked sharply and he thinned his lips, willing himself to say nothing. "_Force you_," she scoffed and tried to sooth the irritation she felt. "You know in London the curse on your heart will be frozen and it will not spread. That's always been the case. What's the point in having your heart restored only for it to become corrupted again?"

Peter sighed at her fierce expression and then looked upwards. She was talking sense and he knew it.

"I don't know what to do," he admitted, not looking at her. "I've lived most of my life in a nowhere place, in a bubble but it was mine. How do I live now? In a city? I can't abide authority, I'm used to ruling, not following and I crave power. I can't help that, I don't think that will ever change, even with a pure heart. I don't know how to be anything else…and I'm sorry," he whispered and looked at her and it was the most intense look of regret she had ever seen from him. "I'm sorry that I almost got you killed, more than once. I love you and I know I don't deserve you but I can't have anyone else. You're mine, you always will be and I am yours."

"You are changing," she said. "You would never had admitted that before but I'm not yours Peter. I belong to myself and no one else…you know my feelings for you but my decision is still the same. We're to be strangers now."

Sorry was not enough, it would never truly be, but it was a start. Wendy rubbed her thumb over his cheek as he battled with the notion of letting her go. He would lose of course, his heart beat only for her, but he was trying.

* * *

That night he had nightmares, tossing and turning and when he awoke with a gasp Wendy was no longer in the bed. A faint light spilled form the bathroom and he got up and knocked on the door, calling her name. He got a low groan in response and he froze before opening the door. Wendy was slumped on the floor, her check pressed to the white tiles and he dropped to his knees beside her. Her pyjamas were soaked through with sweat and she was shaking.

"Wendy? Wendy?" he turned her over and the garish sight of her pale face greeted him. Her eyes were rimmed red and the corner of her lips blue. She struggled to focus on his face but when she did a small smile curled her lips.

"I…I thought I had finally – finally started menstruating. I was _relieved_," she admitted with a low gurgling laugh that turned into a whimper.

"I think you've been poisoned! The food you ate. It must be Blue," he growled through gritted teeth and then helped her to stand. Leading her over to the bed Wendy sat down weakly and it was then she noticed the note lying on Peter's side of the bed. He picked it up and they both read it by the light spilling out of the bathroom.

_To whom in may concern,_

_You will be aware by now that Wendy Darling is ill. If you are interested in an antidote please come to the court by daybreak. If not she will be dead by dusk and it will not be an easy passing._

_You know what you must do._

The note was left unsigned but they knew who it was from. Blue had made her move but it was not one that either could understand, not until it was almost too late.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_I'll try to update again tomorrow or Friday. Thanks for reading :)_


	15. Chapter 15

Emma Swan watched the convent through the rain pebbled dash of the police car and took a sip of coffee. She had given Pan an ultimatum but she was not just going to sit back and hope that he did the right thing. Red, her newly appointed deputy, was watching the seers' place while she staked out the convent. It was possible he could return and even though she did not trust Pan's assertions about Blue she could not ignore Wendy. She was adamant that the fairy was not only bad but the root of so much misfortune. August had backed up her story but that had only proved that the nun had her memories during the curse but not much else.

And yet…had the fairy-nun really told him to send her to prison? She could not shake that suspicion. A polite talk between the town's sheriff and mother superior would not be out of place and if the woman was innocent she should have no objections, especially as her health had improved. The inner instinct that Emma once called a magic power before she even realised the truth of that statement was tingling. Something was not right and she could not rest until her doubts were put to rest.

Emma got out of the car as the sun began to break over the treetops, dew shinning over the lush lawn of the convent, making the grass sparkle. As Emma reached down for her badge she saw a shift of light in her peripheral vision, something floating, but when she looked around there was nothing there, just the convent and still, leafless trees. Frowning she looked down and swore, realising she had left her badge back in the office. She looked up thoughtfully, small smile beginning to curl her mouth.

"Hmm, I suppose it wouldn't hurt," she whispered and making sure she was not being watched she lifted her hand, palm up and then squeezed her eyes shut tight. After a few seconds of deep concentration the sheriff's badge appeared in a puff of white smoke. Emma grinned, clutching the star and tried not to whoop.

She had been practising using her magic, with some help from Regina, and slowly but surely she was growing more adept. After her family had been put in so much peril by magical beings she felt that it was her duty to get to grips with it. She could not do the things that Gold or Regina could do but then neither of them had the same raw power she possessed. She was born with it.

The police dispatch radio crackled and Emma bent through the window to answer it.

"Emma? I mean Sheriff? Do you copy?"

"What is it Red? Over."

"Wendy Darling was just rushed to hospital, I'm following. Over."

Emma's eyes widened in surprise and she paused before speaking. "Is she okay?"

"I'm not sure, her brother said it might be food poisoning. But Pan left and I followed his trail before I lost him. He's good," she admitted grudgingly and as this piece of news reached Emma she was about to ask where he was heading when a shadow moved and she looked up through the opposite window. Pan was heading towards the convent.

"Shit," Emma threw the radio onto the car seat and pulled herself back out of the window. "Pan!" she yelled, pulling her gun on him. He paused on the stairs and turned.

"I don't have time for this," he said, glaring at her and Emma felt an intense stab of loathing. She knew he was very old but that did not deduct the fact he looked like a pompous, smug teenager who almost killed her son.

"What are you doing here? You know what my warning is."

"I don't care! Blue hurt Wendy and she's going to _pay_ for it!" his eyes flashed with fury, the kind of mad anger the ends with someone dead. Emma moved closer and he eyed her gun with disdain.

"She's been taken to hospital. They'll treat her, whatever is wrong with her. Don't forget we have magic too that can help her," Emma reasoned, keeping herself calm and voice even. She had always been collected in stressful situations, even if inside she was screaming.

"Wendy was poisoned by _her_ and she says she has the cure. She left a note," he said and offered her a piece of paper. Emma hesitated but moved closer and looked briefly. She had seen Blue's handwriting a few times, cards and messages, but she did not want to admit that it seemed familiar.

"You could have written that. For all I know _you_ could have poisoned Wendy," Emma said and his eyes flashed with fury.

"_Me_? Why would I risk coming here after your warning if I wanted Wendy dead? Don't you get it?!" he asked through gritted teeth and underneath the outrage and denial there was a latent surge of terror. Emma did not know what to believe, she had no doubt the seemingly young man before her was dangerous and should not be around others for their safety, Neal had testified to that on numerous occasions, but he _was_ telling the truth. Emma wanted to shut her ears to it, unable to stand looking at him.

"I don't trust a single thing that comes out of your mouth and Wendy is better off away from you. I don't think you're here for her, I think you're here for revenge. Neal told me. So no, I don't _get it_. In fact _I don't believe -"_

Emma could not finish her sentence as two things happened. Pan pressed his hand over her mouth and then directly behind him a rip in the fabric of reality opened with a terrible screech, as if the world was screaming. Pan gasped as the fissure began to pull in the world around it and Emma watched in horrified mesmerisation as the dew drops on the leaves floated for a few seconds before they were sucked into the void. It was not night, it was not even dark it was just…nothing.

Pan grabbed Emma as the strange force started to pull on him. She knew looking back she could have let go, could have even pushed him into that nothingness but the fear in his eyes stopped her. He was centuries old and wicked but that horror gripping him knew no age. He was undone before her.

"Hold on!" Emma yelled and focusing on a pounding desire to be safely away she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled them back. She had thought about her car, or at least getting them off the lawn of the convent but with a sudden jolt she and Peter were forced apart and Emma slammed to the ground.

"Well, who needs a bean when we've got you...?" Pan said dryly after a few seconds and Emma opened her eyes. Fluorescent lights blinded her for a moment before she sat up. She had transported them to the police station.

"I – I've never done that before," she stared around in amazement and then made sure that she was still in one piece. Pan offered her a hand but she ignored it and stared at him in utterly bewildered as she got to her feet. "What the hell was that?"

"It's called the Nothing and it's made by your disbelief. Magical beings and worlds are a target for it, fairies especially," he said, staring at the blind covered window and Emma knew he was about to make a run for it.

"So that thing happens every time someone says they don't believe?"

"Here, yes. To a fairy, yes…Or half in my case," he added. "I have to leave, I have to get the antidote but you made the convent unstable for me to approach," he sighed irritably and slotted his fingers through the blinds to peek out.

"I'm sure Wendy will be okay, I heard it was just food poisoning," it felt wrong to ease his worry but she did not want him to run. She felt the town was safer with him in her sights.

His lips thinned. "Open your eyes, look around," he said irritably and she felt an intense swoop of deja-vu. Jefferson had told her the exact same thing once, urging her to believe not only in the curse but her own magic.

"They _are_ open."

"And what do you see? Do you believe me now?"

"Believe what?" she asked weakly. "You expect me to believe that…_nothing_ has something to do with Blue?"

"Yes. You haven't noticed anything odd? Seen something strange out of the corner of your eye? You know what I'm talking about, you're magical and more susceptible to seeing what others can't."

Emma held her tongue, not wanting to back up his claims. She had been catching glimpses of _things_. Sometimes it would be flashes of light but sometimes she thought she heard voices and saw people only to turn and find no one there. She had resorted to asking Regina if there were such things as ghosts. She had been laughed at but then given an affirmative. It hadn't made her feel any better.

Pan's keen green eyes watched her closely and then motioned at the blinded window. "If your eyes are open: look," he advised and Emma cast him a withering glare before she grabbed the cord and began to lift the blind. She expected to see the town as it was every morning, she expected to see people going about their business like normal and that is what she saw. But then she blinked and looked again.

"What the hell…" she breathed, mouth falling open. Grey clouds rolled low overhead and mist was drifting in from the sea but as she looked up the morning sky faded away and a wide expanse of stars shone down on the town. She did not recognise any constellations. Everywhere she looked she saw glimmers of another place, of white stone walls and elegant arches, of beautiful fountains and gardens, of paintings and tapestries. If was as if the town was a watercolour and Storybrooke had been rubbed away in places to reveal another painting underneath.

"It's the court, the fairy court and it's starting to seep into this world. Soon it will spread, take over this little town completely. It won't stop there," he said and Emma jumped. He was inches away. She looked back for the convent and her stomach dropped. It was gone and in its place a massive stone palace reached high into the starlit sky. Tiny lights flashed like fireflies but these insects were coloured in a dozen pastel shades.

"Fairies…"

"A new empire and you its servants," Peter said silkily and then titled his head. "Well, not you. I imagine she has something special in store for you, _saviour_."

"You sound almost excited. Whose side are you on?" she asked as the phone in the office began to ring and in an instant all the lights were flashing.

"Isn't that obvious? My own, always," he said and then flashed her a grin. "I'm glad you believe me," he said and Emma battled down a queasy feeling because he meant it. She was about to pick up the phone when the door to the office burst open and Henry came running in, followed by others she just about recognised and one of the Darling brothers.

"Mom! These ladies say something bad is happening!"

"Henry! Get back!" Emma warned but Henry had already seen Pan. The boy froze, eyes wide and Pan opened his mouth to speak and Emma thought guilt flashed over his face before he focused on John and Tiger Lily.

"What's wrong?"

"Wendy and Michael are gone! The ward she was in just – just vanished and they disappeared with it! Lucy said that the town is being overtaken!" John said and the red haired music teacher came forward, her aunties at her side.

"The future is obscure and so is the present, two realms are merging together and it clouds my ability," she said in annoyance and Emma watched her hands waving through the air. The two other seers, who Emma thought were just two dotty sisters, nodded.

"We knew something was coming but we could not see what."

"I spoke to you yesterday and you never said anything about Wendy being in danger!" Peter rounded on the two seers, fuming angry and they took his hands like he was merely a little boy having a tantrum.

"We didn't see it poppet. That blue bitch on the hill is blocking us," the youngest of the sisters said grumpily and Emma would have smiled but she gripped her arm instead.

"It's true? Mother superior – the Blue Fairy – she's doing this?"

"Oh my love she's the rot at the root of everything. She's ruined so many lives and there's not a person in here who hasn't escaped her shadow," she said and gently touched her niece's blind face and squeezed Peter's hand. He looked down, seemingly unable to look either of them in the eye but then he looked up sharply.

"Where's Tink? She has to be protected!"

"Why?"

"Her baby, she's the next truest believer and she's destined to take Blue's place," Peter explained and then looked like he wished he had said nothing. The flashing lights of the fairies over the convent palace suddenly froze and then with a buzzing noise that Emma could faintly make out they rose and converged in a seething, twinkling mass.

"They're flying towards the harbour!" Lily said, gripping John's hand.

"Oh shit," Emma breathed, watching the hoard fly over the strange melting town towards a familiar ship. "The Jolly Roger."

"Tink can take care of herself but she'll need help. John rally the boys together and head towards the ship," Pan ordered, jumping into action and John looked soar but made for the door, Tiger Lily at his heels. Before he could leave Lucy grabbed his arm, suddenly pale faced and wavering on her feet.

"Be careful! When you first came to this town I said that you would be killed and Michael imprisoned. I thought we stopped that fate but Michael is Blue's prisoner. That fate is back over your head like a shadow. This – this is the price of magic, this is price of his heart," she said, pointing at Pan's chest. "Be wary of the boat, by wary of the sea!" she moaned and Emma suspected she was in some kind of trance and she had to be placed in a chair, swooning.

John's look of astonishment quickly faded into a grim expression and he ran from the office, a deeply worried Tiger Lily following.

Emma looked back at the window and saw with a plummeting stomach that a stream of fairies were heading their way. A part of her could not believe it was happening, they were nuns for goodness sake but then she only ever had bad memories of nuns.

"We should go," Pan said but Emma shook her head.

"This is the safest place in town. I'm the sheriff and I'm not running."

"You're not just the sheriff, you're the saviour," Henry said and Emma smiled down at him. Pan looked like he wanted to be sick but he said nothing, just watched the oncoming attack with eyes that belonged more to an animal than a human. But then it had been made clear, he wasn't completely.

"Henry get in the cell, all of you," Emma instructed, pushing her son towards one and the others followed, all except Pan.

"I can't wield as much power as you but I do have some tricks," he said and Emma watched as he pulled a thin metal rod out of his sleeve.

"What's that?"

"Wand made of iron. Deadly to a fairy," he said and Emma wondered if it hurt him to hold it. As the morning sky over Storybrooke started to fade away into an alien night sky the doors of the office opened again and Regina and Gold walked in.

"Henry!" Regina called, rushing over to the cell and hugging him.

"I'm okay! We have to fight! The fairies are bad!"

"Well I for one am not shocked at this development," Gold drawled, coming to Emma's side. He eyed Pan disdainfully and was met with an equal look of dislike. As Regina moved to them Emma felt calmer, as if their shared animosity for Pan gave her power.

"We have enough magic between us to swat them out of the sky," Regina said, rolling up her sleeves, her hands starting to crackle with magic. Pan shook his head, his eyes alight with an odd bloodlust.

"No, it's not magic that will defeat them, that gives them power. What we have to do is quite the opposite," he said, beginning to grin and even though Emma knew he had a clean heart, that he could apparently feel and love she had to look away. He was a monster but then he was in good company.

"What do we do?" she asked, heart starting to race. The fairies were getting closer and she could see a swarm flying over the Jolly Roger. As the first canon fire sounded Emma placed her hands flat against the glass of the window. She had no combat training to speak of, she was outmatched by everyone in the room but what she lacked for in skill she made up for in strength.

"You've read my story as a child, I take it?" Peter Pan asked and Emma nodded stiffly, her breath fogging up the window. "What's the one thing you should _never_ say to a fairy?"

Gold and Regina started to smile and Emma gazed at Pan out of the corner of her eye.

"You want us to _stop believing_?"

"With all your heart," he said in a breathless relish as the fairies reached them and Emma's lip curled. This she could do.

"Then they've come to the wrong place," she yelled and then slammed her hands against the window. With a loud clap a blazing white light blasted out from the police station and the fairies screamed as they were blown out of the sky.

* * *

**_a.n:_**

_And the battle is on..._


End file.
